Transformers: Primed
by americancheeze
Summary: Jack and Arcee have finally brought an end to their archenemies Airachnid and Silas, but they won't be resting easy for long. A new power is discovered that puts humanity at greater risk and news comes of a startling cosmic event that changes everything.
1. Chapter 1: The End

Chapter One: The End

As my vision cleared I forgot for a moment what had been going on, but the cloud of dust and debris didn't hide the blood covering my shirt and didn't stop the dark liquid from reminding me that not all of it was mine. The smell of energon and copper filled the air and in my daze I found myself amazed that the smell of blood (both transformer and human) overwhelmed the stench of scorched metal and cement. My mind struggled to piece together scattered events for what seemed like an eternity in that single moment. A falling body part brought everything back to the foreground of my mind. Not human, robot, which was just as bad to me...

"ARCEE!" I shouted in despair and concern, but then realized the arm was black and not blue. It wasn't my partner's.

"Jack!" a dark blue motorcycle with light pink highlights rolled over to me weakly from the dust still floating in the air, she sounded relieved, "Thank the Allspark you're okay! When I saw you on the ground covered in blood..." her voice choked ever so slightly, the pain of the very thought of my death was clear in the way she spoke, "... Airachnid standing over you with that look of satisfaction... I... thought you were dead!"

I had a foggy recollection of hearing Arcee crying out in rage and sadness, and an explosion, but what exactly had happened right after I fell was a mystery, "What happened?"

"She won't be coming after us again, Jack."

The weight of the day was starting to sink in now that we weren't fighting for our lives anymore, "Neither will MECH... probably."

"How bad are you hurt? That seems like a lot of blood to have outside of your body." She was trying to keep things light, which I was thankful for.

I leaned on her chassis, groaning a little from what was probably a broken rib, my expression falling, "Not all of it's mine..." I still couldn't get the image of Silas' last moments out of my head... Even to this day, even though I'm past the trauma of the event, I still can't get it out of my head.

Arcee shook suddenly, I recognized the motion from the handful of times she'd transformed to her robot mode while I was riding her. I could tell she understood what had happened while we were separated... why I was so jarred... even though I couldn't see her face and she didn't say anything. She was transforming so she could comfort me, probably carry me out since I was in no shape to ride. Strangely though, she didn't leave her vehicle form no matter how much she shook.

"Dammit!"

"What's wrong? Are you too injured to transform?"

"No..." Arcee's voice had the same tone as humans got when they gritting their teeth in frustration, "I burned out my TRE."

"TRE? You broke something?"

"No." she probably would have shaken her head in time with that if she'd had one at the time, "TRE is the energy reserve used to transform. I used it all up against Airachnid. Ratchet will give me an earful for this... Optimus too probably, but that's not important right now." Arcee repositioned herself so I could rest on her as she worked on opening a com-link to the base, "Ratchet, do you read? I need an emergency landbridge and the medlabs ready... _both_ of them. I also need priority four clean-up. I'm in no shape to manage it myself."

I could overhear the response on my own link device, the autobot medic tried to seem calm, but there was clear concern in his voice, "I'm locking onto your coordinates now. Where have you been? We've been trying to contact you for over a day. Scans were useless until moments ago. It was like you dropped off the face of the Earth!"

Arcee paused, a note of surprise and a note of pride in her voice when a reply managed to form, "Yeah, we were being jammed, but I guess my partner has a real talent for blowing things up."

Ratchet seemed displeased at the mention of explosions, "So are you it seems. I assume you need someone to carry him out for you? I detected a Transformation-Reserved Energon pulse, which means you can't transform."

"I... I didn't have any other choice."

A landbridge opened as Ratchet continued, and he rolled through in his vehicle form, Optimus and Bumblebee beside him, both with weapons ready in case of danger, "You're lucky you didn't get the two of you killed. Frankly I'm surprised you were about to focus a blast without blowing your whole chassis apart."

"I...," Arcee started to say something, but stopped. I got the feeling she'd been about to say something she didn't want me hearing, "I got lucky... it was a moment of spontaneous brilliance."

I stood up, forcing myself to shrug off the pain, "I don't know what you guys are talking about, but you're more hurt than you're letting on, aren't you?"

"So are you." She replied flatly.

Bee loaded me gently into Ratchet's ambulance form and I complied, even though I was still pressing the issue, "I'll live, but will you?"

She couldn't nod, so Arcee 'nodded' her rear-view mirrors, "Some parts might fall off, and out, when I can stand again, but I've been hurt worse." she turned away slightly, "Not much worse if you're making me be honest, but I have gotten over worse."

Ratchet sighed, "Hopefully this time we won't have to reformat you into a smaller model."

My guardian laughed a pained laugh, "I can't afford to lose any more wheels... or meters."

I joined in on the weak attempt at lightening the situation, mainly to make Arcee worry less, "You better fix her properly Ratchet, I'm not riding a unicycle to school, motorized or not."

"Hey, you're lucky. At least there's an Uno motorcycle out there that looks cool. I'm the one that would have to put up with being short and losing half my horsepower."

Optimus placed a comforting hand on Arcee's frame and brought the topic back to the important stuff as gently as possible, using a somewhat fatherly tone, "Are you able to roll out?"

"Yes, Optimus. I'm still road-worthy." I could tell she was trying to act tough, but I also knew it was best to humor her this once.

So did Optimus, "Very well. Bumblebee and I will ensure no Cybertronian technology leaves the site. You should get right to the medbay."

Arcee didn't even try to argue about seeing to my wounds first, like she normally would... that had me more worried than anything so far. "Right. One decepticon, and at least one armory of 'con-based weaponry. There's also a factory."

"I blew half of that up." I chimed in, "The servers mostly. I think they might have sent the schematics to another site though." pulling out a flash drive, I held it aloft with a smile, "But I did get Raf and Ratchet a souvenir."

Optimus nodded, his voice thankful, "Excellent. Perhaps we can track the transmission, and use the schematics and salvage to even the odds against our enemies. All of them..."

"Your seeing far too much action, Jack." I sighed, "You're getting good at this."

I shrugged, and it hurt.

Ratchet slammed the doors on his vehicle form, "Enough talk. We need to get them treated as soon as possible. My scans don't detect any internal bleeding, but some might occur if he continues to aggravate his injuries."

"Right. Make sure you stabilize him first." Arcee insisted.

There we go... that made me feel a lot better. She was still putting me first after all. I didn't like it, but her _not_ doing it had been alarming.

* * *

><p><p>

Some time later I woke up on a small bed in the makeshift medical bay of the autobot base. I heard Arcee's voice (much to my relief, and it sounded like she was mostly all better, "This is getting too dangerous Optimus. Jack nearly died today. I mean, Airachnid is dead, and that takes out a major threat to him, but the kids keep getting more and more involved in our war. I don't want to see him trading fisticuffs with Megatron!"

Bulkhead chuckled, "From what I hear, Jackie-boy would probably win!"

Arcee snapped back, "This isn't funny, Bulkhead! Jack is a _seventeen year old boy_... and he killed somebody for the first time today. Problem is that the way things look it might very well be the first and not last! _No kid _should have to take another person's life. Involving them in our problems isn't right and they _keep_ getting involved!"

I hopped out of bed (probably more forcefully than was healthy for me) and cut off Optimus as he was about to agree with her, "I _had _to get involved this time. MECH had you partially dissected, Arcee, and it was my fault that they were able to get you to begin with. If I hadn't blown up Airachnid's collection-"

She looked over to me and I noticed quickly that she was plugged into a generator of some kind, probably recharging, "She was a demon from _my_ past. You only blew up her ship because _I_ got you involved back then."

"There is no _I_! Aren't we partners?" I shouted, "You're problems are my problems, just like you make my problems yours."

"I'm a two story tall robot outfitted for war, you're a human under six feet tall with almost no training whatsoever. Some of my problems are mine alone. I thought you understood that! I thought you were okay with that."

Optimus and Bulkhead looked at the two of us arguing, then to each other. Reading the mood they inched away to give us some space. Well, given their size it was more like _yarding_, but that's beside the point.

"What am I supposed to do? Am I just supposed to sit around and try to not look squishy? I can't just sit back and ignore the direction my life is heading!"

"This isn't your fight!"

"This is all I have! You're all I have! I don't have any direction in life aside from the same direction as you! I have no idea what to do but what I keep doing."

Arcee's head slumped, and her anger went away as I brought up a point I had once confided in her. For a long time I had felt like I was meant for something different than my mundane life, but I had known for just as long that there was very little I could actually do. Worse was that if the war against the 'cons ended I had no goals after that. Being with Arcee, helping Arcee, was all I had. Though I hadn't said it in those exact words until that very argument. I could tell Arcee wasn't sure how to reply, having not come up with any answers since the first time I'd brought the problem up.

"I'm sorry, Jack... it's my fault you have these problems, I shouldn't have asked you to come back. If I hadn't been so selfish back then you'd be living normally, safely."

"Still directionless, and bored to boot. I'd have come back in a few days anyway. I told you that." My anger had gone away as well, "I'll be more careful. I promise. Don't break up what we've got going."

"I just don't want to lose anyone else..."

"Neither do I. Do you think I went all secret agent against a terrorist group, blew up a factory, and battled a madman to the death on a collapsing catwalk because I was bored this morning?"

My partner laughed despite herself, "That's was actually pretty bad-ass I have to admit. Please don't make it habit though."

"Of course I won't. Are you nuts?" I laughed, "I was just picking up the slack for you. Don't you make a habit of needing it."

Arcee rolled her eyes, "Watch it, hot-shot."

Almost on cue, an alarm went off. Not the "OMG DECEPTICONS ENDING THE WORLD!" kind, but the still important but less apocalyptic "Get the heck over here and look at the sensors!" kind. It was a bit sad that I could tell the difference. Neither of us were in the condition to run over (though in Arcee's case it was mostly because she was plugged into a device that was bigger than her), but we could see the massive screens from where we were sitting as Ratchet manned the console.

"I'm picking up an autobot transmission from what looks like a transport ship. The vessel doesn't have a signature though."

Optimus looked at the monitor with resolve, "Any indication of who it might be?"

"The access code is out-of-date, but that's not too strange. Thing is, the encryption is indicative of Cybertronian Elite Guard."

Miko popped up from her place on the rec-room couch next to Bulkhead, "You guys have an Elite Guard? Awesome!"

"Can't be fake." Arcee noted, "'Cons can't duplicate that encryption style as far as I know. Even Soundwave doesn't have the skill."

Raf looked over the console's display, "Wow... I'd have to agree. I've went against Soundwave's hacking first hand and did decently enough, but that encryption is way beyond me. Looks like a triple-layer intertwining encryption, each with an oscillating sequence cipher."

I looked to Arcee, "Translation?"

"Basically you have to decrypt the thing three thousand times all at once in a split second. Just managing to seal it that tight takes some crazy skills."

Raf, not surprisingly, thought of the solution almost right away. Which would have stunned Ratchet in the old days, "I'll look for a loose transmission bounced from another direction. A code that complex on a communication probably has a key code sent along with it." He scratched his head after several moments, "Nothing... wait. I'll check the back log... Bingo. Whoever this is, he's a careful one. He sent the code during that solar flare three days ago."

Ratchet frowned in annoyance, "I thought that was just static... this 'bot _is_ good."

Arcee nodded, "Standard spec ops procedure. We can probably trust this guy."

Optimus was cautious regardless, "Connect on a double secured band. We wouldn't want to waste all his hard work."

Ratchet pressed some buttons and the message came through, "This is the Excellion calling Optimus Prime. I repeat, this is the Excellion calling Optimus Prime."

Arcee shot to her feet in surprise, a happy expression on her face, "Speak of the devil."

Ratchet turned to her with a confused expression, "Excuse me? The devil? Isn't that an Earth religious figure that is supposed to be the incarnation of evil? Should we be worried?"

I explained, "No, that's just an Earth saying used when you run into someone right when you are talking about them. Not sure why Arcee used it. We weren't talking about anyone..."

"This is the Excellion, I hope you are just taking a little too long to decrypt this, because mild lack of hacking skill is vastly preferred as opposed to you being dead."

Ratchet's expression shifted, "Wait... I think I recognize that voice."

Optimus hit the button to respond, "This is Optimus Prime, we read you. Welcome to Earth, Hot Rod."

Arcee smiled at the sound of the name, "I can't believe it. Is that really you, Hot-Shot?

"I'd recognize that nickname anywhere." The 'bot on the line replied, "Glad you're alive, C.C.!"

"C.C.?" I looked to my partner, perplexed.

She ignored me completely, not looking away from the monitor or saying anything in explanation. Soon though, I would find out that this 'Hot Rod' would not only make things more complicated for me than they already were but for all the Autobots. Which hardly seemed possible at the time.

Next Chapter: In the Middle

Author's Note: Handy bit of trivia: Transformers Prime is supposedly set in the same continuity as the "War for Cybertron" game in which Hot Rod was credited as "Hot Shot" due to copyright tomfoolery but has ever since been called "Rodimus" by the game's makers (which is the name the original Hot Rod took after taking over the role of leader from Optimus). Thus "Hot Rod" being nicknamed "Hot-Shot" by Arcee is a reference to that. You might also note his ship is named after a toy that was a version of a different character named Hot Shot that was a re-paint made as a salute to Hot Rod. REFERENCES ABOUND! _This_ Hot Rod is the same character as in War for Cybertron, but fleshed out with a mix of his original (G1) incarnation, his "Rodimus Prime" incarnation from Transformers Animated, and some original elements. And yes, somehow (despite this being a fanfic) he is still voiced by Judd Nelson, because Judd Nelson can do that.

Thanks for reading and please review! If you are one of my long time fans that were hoping for a Yugioh related upload, don't worry, there's one coming soon.


	2. Chapter 2: In the Middle

Chapter Two: In the Middle

I was still a bit jarred by Arcee's attitude towards this new 'bot when the transmission ran its course and ended. I was so caught up in watching Arcee's uncharacteristic behavior that I barely heard Optimus talk about landing coordinates, extra measures to ensure Hot Rod wouldn't be captured like Wheeljack was, or how he was glad to know that the 'bot survived the evacuation of Cybertron. All I gathered from the entire conversation is that he was close with Arcee and that everyone but Bulkhead seemed to know him at least passingly.

I was so unsure of what to think and feel that it was Miko who ended up being the one to ask the important question, and she knew the perfect target: Arcee, even teasingly throwing in Hot Rod's nickname for her, "So, who is this guy, _C.C._? You said something about Elite Guard?"

Raf added his own bit onto the question, "Yeah, but you all acted surprised that he knew the encryption. I guess he's not a member?"

Arcee shook her head, almost chuckling, "More like an Academy dropout. Even though he was pretty close to graduation he said it wasn't for him and left."

"What? Couldn't he cut it?" I asked, for some reason a bit spiteful.

"More like he got bored. It wasn't that he was stupid. Hot-Shot just had commitment issues."

Optimus voiced his agreement, "When the war actually started he didn't hesitate to take up arms. As I recall he was a bit impatient, but had a lot of potential. When he put his mind to it he really shined."

"Reminds me of a certain 'squishy' individual to my left actually," Arcee jabbed a thumb in my direction, "but at least this one has fewer bad points than Hot-Shot did."

"Thanks." the sudden compliment had caught me off guard and put my unease to rest a little.

Arcee smiled, "Don't let it go to your head."

Ratchet got back on topic by puzzling aloud about the code of the transmission, "I admit Hot Rod was pretty skilled, but he never struck me as capable of this level of computer operation. The boy was a scout like Arcee and Bumblebee, not a tech."

Optimus was actually the one to reply, and not Arcee, who I expected to, "Need I remind you I was not born anywhere near the leader designation? I was a dock worker originally, reformatted into a soldier."

"True."

It was new information to me. The prime was never one to talk about himself. Honestly, the only things I knew about him was his personality, his ideals, and that 'Prime' was actually a title and not a last name. I'd have never pegged that 'bot as a common laborer. I had assumed he was always a finely tuned (literally) military figure from the way most of the Autobots seemed to borderline _revere_ him. Even the new guy Hot Rod seemed to look up to Optimus. Not that I couldn't see why. Heck, the 'bots probably had even more reason than I did considering he had been leading them for so long and fought so long in the war.

"That aside, Ratchet, we should get underway. Open the groundbridge. Bulkhead and I will be there to see that he lands safely and help conceal the Excellion. Bumblebee, be on standby in case of Decepticon attack."

Arcee sighed, "I wish I could have your backs, the 'cons probably didn't overhear, but there's always the chance of them detecting the ship."

"Just rest. Even though you are patched up, you still need to give your systems time to recover. We will be alright, and this new addition to the team could not have come at a better time."

"Yeah. We won't be down one now. Better still, we'll be up one when I'm finally up and rolling again."

Optimus nodded as the groundbridge sprang to life and then turned to head through. Bulkhead breached an interesting question to him on the way out, "I wonder how he found us? Do you think he ran into Wheeljack out there?"

"He did promise to send any survivors our way." the prime mused, then passed through the energy vortex.

I sighed, worrying for them, but quickly found myself winded. Sitting again, I realized just how badly I was injured. Arcee noticed I was in pain as well, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just stood up too long, I can manage."

Ratchet actually seemed impressed, "I'm actually surprised you are holding up so well. I've always thought humans were such fragile creatures, but you make up for being easy to break with an astounding ability to push through high amounts of damage."

Miko of all people, beamed a smile, "Jack's a special case. I know a lot of humans that would buckle from a papercut."

"Papercut?" the doctor inquired.

"Nevermind. Just a really small pointless scratch that doesn't hurt much."

Arcee looked over at me fondly, "Yeah, I like to think of all three of you as special for your own reasons, but Jack's the tough one." she laughed at a memory, "Remember when we first ran into Airachid? You admitted later that you briefly pondered fighting her off with your knife before quickly realizing how stupid that was."

"Haha, yeah. I don't know what I was thinking, the biggest blade on it wasn't even the length of my middle finger."

"I can kind of admire that you wanted to fight back, even if it was stupid. The fact that you almost managed to finish her off with that bit of sabotage was pretty great too."

"I still don't know how she got away from that explosion so fast, but I guess if I did, then she could."

"Again, Jack, don't make a habit of fighting decepticons, that's my job."

"I know. Not like I can do a whole lot to them anyway." on that note, my thoughts wandered back to the terror of our fight against Airachnid and MECH, who had many times come back to haunt us. At least one, hopefully both, were out of the equation, but thinking about it reminded me of something, "You said you used up all of your transformation energy on Airachnid, and Ratchet said something about a pulse. Was that the explosion I heard before snapping to my senses again?"

She nodded, "Yeah. When I saw her looming over you, I thought you were dead and I kind of flipped out. Losing three partners to 'cons was too much for me... especially since I was finally starting to get past everything and loosen up. I went all out on her and just wanted to end her without caring about anything else. Like Ratchet said I'm lucky I didn't kill both of us. I'm sorry."

"What exactly did you do?"

"You noticed my vehicle mode is a lot smaller than my 'bot mode right?"

I nodded, "Of course."

"Ratchet can explain it better, but we transformers have mass conversion technology within our natural systems. It's what lets us change our body parts to suit our alternate modes and get rid of extra bits that wouldn't normally fit. Our bodies change extra bits into energon and back again when we change size."

"So basically you set off this energon like I set off her ship?"

"Basically. There's some loss of energy since the process consumes it as well, but we all have large reserves of the stuff set aside for transforming."

"Transformation Reserve Energon."

"TRE."

"Isn't energon like your blood? I can't imagine detonating my own blood..."

Arcee looked away, fidgeting slightly, "Well, I was pretty pissed off, and pretty sad. Rage and despair can do weird things to logic, like get rid of it completely."

"Putting it that way, if you were killed and I had a miniature nuclear device for a blood stream I might cut loose with a bit of fireworks myself."

"Good thing only one of us has that feature then. Allspark forbid we both need recharging."

I laughed at the idea of both of us plugged in, me probably in a much smaller wall socket. As time passed and we waited for Optimus to get back, I couldn't help but think back at much our friendship had progressed in the year we'd known each other, and worry that she wouldn't need me anymore with this 'Hot Rod' around. Back then, when she first came to get me to come back to this whole mess, I had only the slightest inkling that we could ever get like this.

* * *

><p><em>Just over a year before...<em>

Coming in for a day of work at my part-time job, I sighed at the end of a long gaze at the sign. I was just about to double-check the chain on my bike when a familiar voice came to my ears, "Nice bike."

I turned, and immediately felt ten times worse than I already did as I spotted Arcee in her vehicle form. Not that I minded the autobot's company, but part of me felt like I had disappointed all of them by walking away. I'd always been taught to be responsible to my family, friends, and my job, but that worked against me both ways in this. I had a responsibility to my mom, who would be all alone without me and crushed if I got killed tangling with 'cons, but I also felt like Miko and Raf would need me. Miko had a tenancy to cause trouble and Raf was the kind of kid that would try his best to help out and end up dead. I wasn't sure what to do. Then there was Arcee, the grumpy autobot that seemed to be going through a lot that she refused to admit to anyone. Part of me felt like she needed someone she could talk to. I wasn't sure what to do. I wasn't sure what I _could _do.

"Arcee look, really, Miko already tried. Tell Optimus I respect him big time, but if you're at war with stuff like the decepticons there's nothing I can do to help."

"Optimus didn't send me and no one's asking you to help."

"Okay... so... if we both agree I'm not warrior material, then..." I looked away, uncertain. I did want to help actually, but there was no way I could trade blows with three-story tall transforming robots.

Arcee, pain in her voice, struggled slightly as she swallowed her pride, "Jack, I just lost someone I cared about. Maybe it's the grief talking, maybe you're growing on me..., but whatever it is... I'm just not ready to say goodbye."

I looked to the 'bot with a measure of surprise, not having expected her to confirm my suspicions. To be honest, I wasn't sure what my feelings were, and I'm not just talking about the situation. I wasn't sure if I thought of the 'bot as a friend, a big sister, or if I was attracted to her. There was a bond there, I knew that much. We just seemed to click. As if we were the only ones in the entire universe that could completely get each other.

"I... I'm not ready to say goodbye either..."

There was a smile in the fem' 'bot's voice, "Well, that's... good to hear."

There was an awkward silence.

The bike bot fidgeted, "I get the feeling one of us should say something, but I'm coming up blank on my end."

"Me too... Not exactly sure where to go from here."

"How about back to base?"

"I have work."

"Then isn't that a place to go from here?" she teased, "I'll wait. How long will you be?"

"Just a few hours."

"And I just happen to have a few hours to kill while Ratchet studies that data you three got on the 'con ship."

"Sorry about that by the way."

She shook her head, "Don't worry about it. Miko explained. She said you and Raf only came to get her out of danger. I'm the one that should apologize. I snapped at you for leaving that room on the ship when you had no choice but to leave it."

"Heat of the moment, no big deal. I knew where you were coming from."

"Thanks for being mature about it... thanks for taking care of the others too. According to Miko you were a real hero."

I laughed, "She was probably blowing things out of proportion."

"Still... making the save and thinking on your feet deserves... what's that word... 'kudos'?"

"Thanks." I glanced around to make sure nobody was watching me talk to a motorcycle. Then looked to my friend again, "I should go or I'll be late. See you in about four hours."

"Take the com-link in my storage compartment. Ratchet made it to clip into your cellphone. It replaces the battery."

I did so, popping my cell's battery out to put in the far more complex Cybertronian device, "Thanks."

"This way I can let you know if I'm called away or if 'cons show up."

"Right." I turned and headed off towards the employee entrance, but then stopped and turned back to tell Arcee a final thing, "I can't really help you fight decepticons, but I'm here for you if you need me for anything else okay? I mean it."

"T-thanks... same here, Jack."

* * *

><p>End of flashback...<p>

The blips and bleeps of the machinery and Ratchet grumbling thoughtfully over the medical readouts brought me out of my nostalgia, "Something wrong, Ratchet?"

"No, Jack. Nothing's wrong exactly. Just something interesting in the scans. You probably wouldn't understand it."

"Try me."

He spouted a long string of technical jargon that I of course didn't understand.

"You did that on purpose." I glared.

"Yes. Yes I did." the 'bot teased with a completely deadpan humor, a behavior he'd not had a year ago. "To put it simply it seems that Arcee is recovering at an unusually high rate. Normally those kinds of wounds would have left her disabled for a full week, but she is already able to do light activity. If this continues, our commander will be fully operational in only half the time it should logically take."

Arcee raised a metallic eyebrow, "Any idea what's causing it?"

Ratchet nodded affirmatively, "I have been working on a theory almost since the children joined us."

"Ratchet, are you saying they're the cause?"

"How is that even possible?" I wondered.

Ratchet pulled up several scans from various other incidents and from various other members of our group, "This isn't the first time one of us has recovered unusually fast." He brought a screen dated about a year ago to the front and expanded it so we could see better.

Arcee recognized it, "That was from when Megatron pegged me at the space bridge. I was out cold."

Ratchet shook his head, "The shot was potentially lethal, but within moments of getting you back around Jack you were walking around and the wound only required a few mends. Your auto-repair functions took care of most of it."

"That still doesn't explain how I could be doing it."

"My theory is still a fledgling one, and I haven't the technology to test it, but I believe it might have something to do with energon exposure. Remember when Optimus told you that Earth was one of many planets selected for storing energon reserves long ago?"

"Yeah."

"Perhaps that energon had a strange affect on the genetic development of your species. Energon being the life force of transformers, slowly changing the life force of humans. It would not be too large a stretch of the imagination that humans infused with a form of energon and a different life energy might possibly have an enhancing effect."

"I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around the idea, but you're saying that just being around humans makes energon better?"

"Not raw energon, the radiation of raw energon overpowers the effect, but humans do seem to slightly enhance the effectiveness of processed energon, specifically during the refinement and conversion processes, like during auto-repair or transformation."

A light bulb went off in Arcee's mind, "So that's why I've been getting faster at mode changing."

"It was also quite possibly the reason you didn't kill yourself when you released that energon pulse. It was a burst of incredibly refined and stable energon rather than just regular energon."

Bee spoke up suddenly, and Raf translated for those of us that couldn't understand him, "Good point, Bumblebee, this is as good as it is bad. If the 'cons find out that humans enrich energon..."

Arcee gritted her teeth, "They'll double their efforts to conquer Earth, probably openly start abducting humans."

Ratchet frowned hard, "Knowing Megatron he will launch the first of said assaults on our human charges. Going after each one with overwhelming force."

"We can't let that happen."

Miko didn't seem worried, "Well, great timing on Hot Rod's part then! Reinforcements for the win!"

Ratchet was perplexed at the odd phrasing, not knowing internet jargon. I sighed, "Miko, don't use internet slang in regular conversation. Especially with people that don't surf the internet."

We were cut off from continuing our conversation by the com-link coming to life, heavy laser fire being the first sound heard, Optimus' voice being the second, "Ratchet, emergency land bridge at our coordinates. We are under heavy decepticon fire."

The voice from the transmission, Hot Rod, roared with equal parts anger and exhilaration, "Time for maximum overdrive you decepti-scum!"

On that note there was a small transformation sound I recognized as the change of 'bot hands to weapons and the firefight abruptly got more intense. Ratchet fiddled with the groundbridge controls, "It's no good Optimus, you are too tightly packed in that outcropping. I can't get you an exit that would be behind cover. You'd have to run into enemy fire."

Hot Rod was quick to answer, "Then I'll just make some cover. Covering fire that is. On my mark open the groundbridge at these coordinates, have Bee pop out and bring the pain, then get right back in. I'll be there to make sure he isn't shot."

"That's right between your position and the decepticons! You're suggesting a Vector Gamma Gambit aren't you! That's madness! The point man is killed 40% of the time in that strategy! You'd be committing suicide!"

"Don't forget who you're talking to. I'm the fastest thing this side of Arcee. Plus it's either the gambit, or wait for the incoming flak to collapse this rock face on us."

Optimus didn't like it, I could tell, "We do not have any other options, Ratchet. We will do the gambit."

Ratchet sighed and turned to Bee, probably to tell him to be ready, but the skilled scout already was. He cued up the bridge to a single button press and waited for the cue, "The bridge is primed and ready."

Arcee stood up and shouted over the com at Hot Rod, "Don't you get yourself dead, Hot-Shot, you just got here."

"Please," the 'bot scoffed, "They won't even scuff the paint job."

"If you let them leave a single scratch I'll paint you black and blue you got that?"

He laughed, not at all concerned about an apparent suicide charge at the enemy. I could see how he'd gotten his name.

Next Chapter: The Beginning

Preview: We jump back a little to Hot Rod's arrival and the start of the firefight, Hot Rod grabs a vehicle mode, and more looking back at past events that happened around canon episodes.


	3. Chapter 3: The Beginning

Chapter 3: The Beginning

"This is Optimus Prime. We read you. Welcome to Earth, Hot Rod." the deep and noble, but a bit preachy voice came over the com and I had to smile.

Another voice I hadn't expected was soon to follow, ""I can't believe it. Is that really you, Hot-Shot?

"I'd recognize that nickname anywhere. Glad you're alive, C.C.!"

"C.C.?" asked a voice I didn't recognize. It was barely picked up by the com, so the 'bot must have been small or too far away.

"Thank the Allspark you two made it off Cybertron. After all that chaos getting off-world I was worried we might have lost you. Either of you checking out permanently would have been a major damper on my visit."

"It is good to hear from you as well. Are scanners don't read an autobot signature from your vessel. I assume you have a story to tell about that." the leader of all autobots noted fondly.

"That's the least of the things I have to talk about, but we can trade information when I land. How big of a welcoming committee can I expect? Assuming the line is secure enough to tell me."

"We are only five in number. Ratchet, Bumblebee, Arcee, and I have served with you before, there is also our weapons expert Bulkhead who will accompany me to the landing coordinates being sent to you now."

The data came through fine and I matched the numbers to the proper point on my maps, "Great... that's a desert. I hate sand. Decent cover though and far from inhabited areas. We must be running covert. I'll keep that in mind when I'm flying in."

"How many of you can we expect?" the prime asked, only a hint of hopefulness was betrayed in his voice.

"I had my own squad of 'bots, but I'm the only one that made it. A helpful note: avoid landing on a planet called Quintessa, not a friendly place." The mention of comrades brought painful memories back, and Optimus (or at least Arcee) likely picked up on the fact that my lighthearted words were just a defense mechanism.

"At least not all were lost. We shall have a moment of silence for them when you arrive at the base." Optimus was sympathetic of course. I know he must have felt similar pain in much larger doses every day in the war. Regardless, the 'bot was born for the job. Strong enough to get by it, "The coordinates are not our base however and I would advise you to not land until we signal you from the site. Previously decepticons have intercepted transmissions and arrived ahead of us."

"That sounds nasty. Hopefully we can avoid attaching too much attention. I've picked up a lot of 'con chatter so I know their general position. I'll do my best to avoid their sensors but I'm not quite perfect enough to guarantee they won't spot me."

"Just do you best, Hot-Shot." Arcee shot back, I could picture her rolling her eyes at my off-handed arrogance."

"Yes, ma'am. Hot Rod, out. See you in five."

"Six, I'm on the mend so I can't meet you at the site."

I'd been reaching for the com to switch it off, but that had caught me off-guard, "Are you alright? How badly are you hurt?"

"Not reformatting bad, don't worry. Just had a bit of a scrap with an old enemy that won't even be crawling anymore. I'd be hurt a lot worse if not for my partner."

"Cliff's there? Optimus didn't count him..."

There was pain in her voice, there wasn't any hiding it, "N-no... uh... a local."

"Interesting..." I said, and immediately kicked myself for saying something so out of place, "I'll hear all about it when I get there.

"Yeah..." she said, a bit lacking in energy, "It's great to hear your voice again. I'm glad you're alive."

"Same to you. Anyway, like I said before: Hot Rod out. See ya in a few." with a press, the link was closed.

Sighing, I locked in the coordinates and aimed for the 'Nevada' desert, programming a flight path into the auto-pilot that would hopefully keep me out of sight. The planet, from what I could tell, was pretty primitive as hadn't developed to the point of a global government yet. It wasn't surprising though, they didn't seem to have very good space-faring technology, so their view of the universe was pretty narrow. I've never been much of a history buff, but I imagine few planets unite until they realize they have bigger things to hate than each other. Plus it wasn't like I could claim Cybertron was any better. We may have only had two factions compared to Earth's innumerable ones, but our wars had destroyed our planet... completely and irreparably it seemed.

Standing up from the console I marveled at the diversity of environments that awaited me. Sure I'd probably stick to the streets because offroading really wasn't my thing, but I had to respect the beauty of the jungles, forests, mountains, and even the oceans.

"Oceans..." I clenched the side of my head as memories came flooding back.

A small metallic world only about twice the size of this one's moon, a metallic ring around it that was oddly connected to the planetoid itself. The whole thing silvery and spiky, clearly engineering rather than born or industrialized. When I'd ordered our pilot to land I'd thought that meant we could find other transformers there and maybe emigrate. Only half of that proved the case for the world I would learn was called Quintessa. The Quintessons were madmen, ruling over the world with a twisted set of rules structures only for their own amusement. I'd only been able to watch as my entire unit was ripped to pieces by things the lunatics called 'Sharkticons'. It was an odd name. From my searches through the records of planets that had 'sharks' none of them resembled those things. One such species looked far scarier and with tentacles and far too many eyes in far too many places, but that was another story. The 'sharkticons' looked more like Earth's crocodiles... but even I had to admit 'crocticon' didn't have quite the same punch to it.

Speaking of Earth specimens I shook the traumas from my mind and went over to the engineering console like I'd intended. If we we going covert and were likely outnumbered by the 'cons it was smart to use the transports long range scanners to acquire an alternate mode rather than do it in person. Linking to the ship's systems I pinged the planet and pulled up a list of possible candidates that were as close as possible to my Cybertronian alt mode. There was a slightly odd looking concept car called a 'Dome Zero', the a 'Ford GT', various 'Lamborghini' models, the 'Bugatti Veyron' supposedly being the fastest commercial car in the world, but I came across a sub-model of something called a 'Saleen S7 Twin Turbo' and fell in love. The 'Competition Package' could hit the same speed as the Veyron if not more under the right conditions, but wasn't commercially available. I scanned one... which took a little longer since there was only three of them on the entire planet. My chassis was already fairly close to the design, so the reformatting didn't do much at all, only certain parts of me became slightly more streamlined. I made a point of keeping my extra exhaust pipes, since they were like a signature and also functioned as weapons in my normal form.

I spent a short time getting used to the transformation and the mechanics of the form. The roar of the engine was a bit loud, but I liked it. It sounded beastly. I didn't have too much time to enjoy it before the ship entered the atmosphere and I got the signal from Optimus that they were at the site. There was also the ping of a warning that decepticons were on the move. They'd detected me and were moving to intercept.

I opened a short range channel the moment I was in range of the other autobots, "I've pulled the attention of a full unit of vehicons. I'll be coming in with more heat than normal. Seems to be a ground-based 'con on the way to your position as well. Sports car."

"That would be Knock Out."

I looked back at my cargo, and clenched my jaw at the memory of duties I'd previously failed, "I can't let them take the Excellion, I have important cargo on-board."

A burly voice, likely Bulkhead, pried deeper, "What do you mean 'important cargo'?"

Optimus didn't care about specifics, those things could be handled later, the only detail he cared about was, "How fast can it be unloaded?"

I sighed, "We wouldn't have enough time even if you had twice the 'bots you've got on the planet, but I'm not letting the 'cons get their hands on these. I owe my crew that much." blaster fire started colliding with the Excellion as I spoke, "I'm going to have to jettison them and salvage them later. There's no way we can retain this ship with this many of them on us."

"Do what you feel you must."

(A/N: Cue up "Dare" by Stan Bush for this scene for both maximum awesomeness and maximum geeking-out.)

Moving over to the console, I placing a hand on the pod, "I'm sorry guys... you're dead now, but at least your unfulfilled dreams won't fall into Megatron's hands."

I took my hand off he casing, locked in some coordinates on each of the five pods and then launched them blasting them through as many drones as I could on their way out, "That''s the closest you'll ever get decepti-clowns."

I took a moment to watch the blank protoforms fly off in various directions and thought back at my second in command talking about ow he and his spark-mate had decided to start a family. Lots of my crew decided to get to working on offspring, trusting completely that by the time the protoform frames were done I would have found them a suitable planet to start a new life on. It was part of the reason I rushed when I found Quintessa... but the five 'forms would probably forever be sparkless.

"Systems critical. The shields are not designed for concentrated fire, please disengage." the ship AI warned, "Shields failing in thirty seconds."

"Emergency landing. Open the cargo bay doors!" I quickly went into vehicle mode and hit the brakes, revving my engine to build up as much acceleration as possible for the moment I let off of them.

The doors slowly started coming open and I went into action, speeding down the length of the ship at breakneck speed, pumping energon into the design to push mast the 0-60 in 2.8 seconds of the vehicle's design. I was going nearly 100mph when I came flying off the ship's still opening cargo door like a ramp. A passing jet-form vehicon got a face-full of me as a collided with him, transformed, and grabbed him by the wings. The dumb-bot fired wildly in panic, which was as helpful as you'd guess when I sheered him around using my weight to point at a few of his allies as we started falling. When a few of the others tried blasting me off their buddy I simply positioned the poor sap in the way of the shots, transforming and shooting off the jet-mode's back using my own form's astounding acceleration. I'd ride my next victim down ins a spiral of doom when he turn to a still air-worthy robot form, but couldn't keep both our weights aloft. Shortly before impact I kicked away from me, blasted him full of holes with the array of light blasters I mentioned earlier, then absorbed the already lightened fall by going to vehicle mode and hitting the gas. In a bit of dynamic timing, my ship crashed into the cliffs behind me as I flung up a huge sand trail speeding towards Optimus' position at what quickly became 200mph.

The drones were already on the two in big numbers, though the two showed just how elite they were by holding them off solidly. I figured I'd help out anyway though. "Optimus, heads up!"

I changed to robot mode without slowing down, my legs coming from beneath the chassis of my vehicle form and launching me into the air. I flipped, deploying a device from my belt that became a large axe. I threw the weapon to its owner and with the velocity of my travel speed behind it sent it cleaving through a bunch of 'cons on its way to Optimus, who was badass enough to not only catch it, but do so where he used the remaining momentum behind a swing to cleave right through a 'con coming up from behind. Meanwhile I landed and span around to open fire on the ones that were chasing me.

Bulkhead laughed, "Well, you really know how to make an entrance kid."

I smiled, "Too bad I'm not that good at making exits too."

"Ha." the large 'bot turned his fist into a mace, which he then fired like a cannonball into the 'cons, scattering enough for a charge to cover and taking out even more when he pulled on the cable attached to the ball and used it to 'wreck some havoc'.

Optimus turned towards the gap and turned into a big rig, missing the trailer. Seeing his idea immediately I hopped onto the place the trailer would normally hook to, "You drive, I'll shoot."

Bulkhead changed as well and took point, I tried my best to keep the drones at bay with my blaster arrays and was getting the job done. Too bad I spotted a red card accelerating our way at high speed. One that then turned into a 'con and started firing at us. We got to cover in a small outcropping in the cliffs, but we were still outgunned. Not to mention cornered.

Optimus fired up his com, "Ratchet, emergency land bridge at our coordinates. We are under heavy decepticon fire."

High on the rush of the last few minutes, I stood from behind our cover and took a firm stance. I had the light blaster array by virtue of a great design idea from my builders, but I also had the standard issue weapon mode for my hands themselves, "Time for maximum overdrive you decepti-scum!"

I turned my hands into the heavier blasters and cut loose with both hands and both arrays, the intensified fire driving the 'cons to cover.

Ratchet grumbled over the com, "It's no good Optimus, your too tightly packed in that outcropping. I can't get you an exit that would be behind cover. You'd have to run into enemy fire."

I was quick to answer with a plan of action,"Then I'll just _make_ some cover. _Covering fire_ that is. On my mark open the groundbridge at these coordinates, have Bee pop out and bring the pain, then get right back in. I'll be there to make sure he isn't shot."

"That's right between your position and the decepticons! You're suggesting a Vector Gamma Gambit aren't you! That's madness! The point man is killed 40% of the time in that strategy! You'd be committing suicide!"

"Don't forget who you're talking to. I'm the fastest thing this side of Arcee. Plus it's either the gambit, or wait for the incoming flak to collapse this rock face on us."

Optimus didn't like it, even a gorilla could see that, "We don't have any other options, Ratchet. We'll do the gambit."

Ratchet sighed, "The bridge is primed and ready."

Arcee shouted at me, "Don't you get yourself dead, Hot-Shot, you just got here."

"Please! They won't even scuff the paint job."

"If you let them leave a single scratch I'll paint you black and blue you got that?"

I laughed, then promptly charged the enemy, coming around wide as my friends covered me from the safe position. As I came back around I gave the signal. The bridge opened and Bee came out blasting and Optimus and Bulkhead charged the gate as I pulled a long but sharp turn in front of it, creating a massive cloud of dust. I drove straight at Bee, and took on bot form again, tackling him through as Optimus and Bulkhead got in as well.

* * *

><p>Jack's Perspective<p>

The bridge shut down almost right behind a pile of 'bots flying into it covered in sand. Bulkhead rolled over onto his back and laughed heartily, "And you said you were bad at exits! That was the third most incredible thing I've ever seen! HAHA!"

A crimson and yellow autobot I didn't know was helped into a standing position, looking at the big 'bot helping him with a look of astonishment, "The _third_? What the heck is number one?"

"All of us jumping off an exploding spacebridge, Bee saving Arcee from flying off into space en route, and falling through a transwarp vortex being chased by an blast the size of a small supernova."

The guy I guess had to be Hot Rod laughed, "By the Allspark! I'm gonna like it here!"

The bot was only a little bigger than Bumblebee, but had more plating and seemed built for more physical strength. From what little I'd learned based on finding out each of my Cybertronian friend's ages, Hot Rod was probably about the same age as Arcee, which put him in the middle of the range, just over Bulkhead and much older than Bee. That was probably the main source of the more refined frame. He was mostly red with a few parts the were lighter, witha flame motif on his chestplate. His head was a simple red helmet with a silver face, very much like Arcee's head but more masculine and without the fringes.

Arcee frowned, crossing her arms with an expression she'd given me countless times, "You would say that. Too bad for you that things aren't usually that intense." Bumblebee buzzed what sounded like a snide remark and Arcee shot a brief glare his way, "Quiet, you."

"Speaking of that," Hot Rod stepped over, grabbing Arcee and glancing over her over for injuries, "Are you okay? Is this reformat from that fight?" Bee must have made a remark about her just getting out of a major conflict.

She shook her head, "This format was from years ago. You'd know that if you didn't spend half your time running rampant around Cybertron following your own 'instincts'"

"Sorry, C.C. I was a punk kid back then I admit. I've matured though. Now I'm a punk adult."

Arcee sighed and rolled her eyes at the joke, "Anyway, I'm fine. Just need to let the repair systems so the job and recharge my energon reserves."

Hot Rod's expression lit up, "Ah! I can help with that." pulling something off of his 'belt' he tossed it to Ratchet, who promptly loaded it into his arm with surprise.

"Where did you get an energon beam? I thought these all burned out during the war."

"I'm good at what I do. What can I say? Skills and good looks."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion, "What's an energon gun? Some kind of medical tool?"

Hot Rod jumped slightly, startled, "Whoa! What...? Haha. I didn't see you there little dude. You're one of the locals right?"

"I'm Arcee's partner." I proclaimed firmly, crossing my arms.

The red 'bot poked me gently (for a robot that stood over two stories tall that is) and I nearly fell over, "A bit squishy, but you seem reliable."

"Watch it."

"Haha! Sorry, I don't mean anything by it." The 'bot was humoring me, I could tell it in his voice.

So could Arcee, "He's telling the truth Hot Rod. He's been a big help with a lot of things. Even when I didn't want any help."

"Is that so?" his demeanor shifted to genuinely impressed, "That's great."

Ratchet came over and turned his hand into a device I hadn't seen before, "To answer your question, an energon beam infuses a transformer with pure energon, boosting their rate of recovery and refilling their reserves. Its not instantaneous, but it is most certainly a big help."

Hot Rod smiled as Arcee was treated, then turned to Optimus, "You were great out there, boss. Sorry to bring sown he mood, but I've got a lot I need to report."

"Go ahead."

"I'll start with the biggest thing then work my way down." the 'bot leaned against a wall, "I went back to Cybertron right before heading this direction, and saw something quite interesting.

Ratchet grumbled, "If it's a horde of undead transformers flying into a transwarp portal, then we already know."

Hot Rod's eyes widened, "What the Pit have you guys been up to?" shaking his head, he continued, "No, it wasn't that weird... well it was, but it a different way."

"What is it, Hot Rod?" Optimus asked, bracing himself for something as big as something that had been one of Megatron's 'endgames'.

Hot Rod looked at each of the 'bots with and expression that suggested they all brace themselves for something huge. No amount warning could have been enough to prepare for what he revealed, "When I went there... Cybertron was gone... _completely_ gone."

Next Chapter: Prelude

Preview: I didn't have room to cover more of the canon events in flashbacks, but next chapter I will, and the 'bots deal with the news that their home planet is no longer where it should be. Also, the autobots must set out to recover the jettisoned protoforms before Megatron gets his hands on them.


	4. Chapter 4: Prelude

Chapter 4: Prelude

"What do you mean Cybertron is gone?" Ratchet implored, "Entire planets don't just vanish!"

"Of course not." the red 'bot tossed a 'small' device to the medic, who pressed a button to open a screen, "It floated away."

"This doesn't make any sense! Planets don't leave their orbits without a major collision or significant gravitational distortion. There's no sign of such an event in these readings."

"I checked the readings five times. The last two were done after checking the sensors. The data is solid."

"It can't be." Ratchet pulled the screen up on the larger computer and pointed to several points on a star map, "Based on these readings the planet moved out of the system at a steady rate and was totally unaffected by coming within the gravitational radius of several planets."

"What could do this kind of thing?" Arcee stood and asked.

"Nothing!" Ratchet exclaimed.

Bumblebee beeped a series of noises, putting in his two cents and Raf looked at him curiously, "What's a Trypticon?"

Optimus elaborated, "Trypticon was a massive station that the decepticons converted into a transformer and turned against us. It was the size of a small outpost."

Arcee added, "Which would be about the same square miles as a small Earth city, but much taller. I'd say in station mode he would be about the size of Manhattan, including the subway system underground."

I winced at the thought of a 'con that large hitting Earth, "That's absolutely terrifying."

Bumblebee beeped in agreement.

"Aside from being really scary though, I don't see a 'bot moving a planet. Even one that big. Not that I know what size Cybertron is."

Ratchet did, "About the size of Earth's moon... You're right. Even if Trypticon was still alive he couldn't move Cybertron, especially not this fast." he studied the readings more closely, "The missing planet is playing havoc on the local system. Char, the closest planet to our sun will collide with it within a century. There's a chance that such an event will make the sun go supernova... wiping out our home solar system."

Hot Rod apparently didn't know that from the data, "What? But what about Nebulos? That planet has life on it! Billions will die!"

Ratchet looked grim, "Nebulos broke orbit after Cybertron passed by it just like these two other planets here. All three hurdling out of the solar system at a rate that will take them out of the range of the blast by the time that it occurs. Unfortunately..."

Raf frowned, "Breaking orbit like that might have destroyed everything on the planet already. Even if it didn't, getting further away from their sun will plunge that world into an ice age and probably wipe out all life on it. Plus the loose planets will head through other systems eventually, so will Cybertron. There's no telling how many planets are gonna be destroyed. Every one of these four planets could break the orbits of any number of other planets, which could do the same."

I was, of course, dumbstruck, "So basically this is the eventual end of the universe?"

Ratchet shook his head, "Of course not. Mathematically speaking it's only the end of a few hundred thousand solar systems. It's small consolation, but most of them not life-bearing, and it will take eons for all but the closest ones to be affected. Only The fate of Nebulos is in immediate danger."

No one spoke for several moments, it was Ratchet that moved the topic along, "It may seem small after learning that entire solar systems are going to be destroyed, but there is also a few moons completely missing from both Cybertron and the planets that were shifted from their orbits. Unlike Cybertron, these seem to have actually vanished... or rather blown up."

Optimus looked over the data, but he probably didn't get the subtle details, "Was there a collision of some kind?"

"It seems so, but the calculations seem to indicate that Cybertron didn't slow down afterward. Such an impact would logically have stopped it."

Miko, of all people, was the one to bring up a valid point, "Then something's gotta be moving it."

I thought on it, and came up with nothing solid, "That still doesn't give us any clue about what. Ratchet, could all the animated dead of Cybertron combined move the planet?"

"Maybe. There's innumerable dead in the planet itself. I'd need to run some calculations, but at a glance it seems to be moving too fast for that."

Hot Rod stepped up, "Well, you can work on that, but we have more pressing issues at hand."

Ratchet turned, "More pressing than a planet full of undead moving our direction and destroying entire solar systems on the way?"

"Well for one, there's nothing we can do about that right now. Two: at that rate even a grunt could tell you it will take the planet well over a decade to get here. We have smaller but more immediate problems that we can actually do something about."

Optimus looked to the younger 'bot, "Tell us what you mean, Hot Rod."

"Well," a pained expression crossed his face, as if he was recalling something painful, and he turned to cast his gaze on Raf, Miko, and me, "You kids might not know this, but transformers are birthed from something called the 'Well of All Sparks' where the creator of all life on our planet, the AllSpark, creates beings called protoforms and endows them with a spark of life. They are then taught by caretakers how to transform and become full-fledged transformers. We had to launch the AllSpark into space to prevent Megatron from capturing it. Which means the Well could no longer birth new protoforms."

Arcee gave Hot Rod a curious look, "The AllSpark was destroyed recently, you can't have found it."

The crimson 'bot shook his head and began to speak,but Optimus had deduced what it was and cut him off, "The cargo you mentioned... were they protoforms?"

Hot Rod nodded, shocking everyone. Bulkhead was the one to ask the question, "How's that possible? I-I mean, there weren't any new protoforms after the AllSpark launched and we didn't get any new ones right before we launched it. We would have raised them already."

"My crew has been working as mercenaries on various inhabited worlds, seeking a place to settle down, but many of my crewmates were actually scientists. They were trying to find a way for transformers to reproduce without the AllSpark. Namely building our own protoforms. They don't have sparks though. Research was advancing pretty well towards using a sort of 'budding' process to produce new sparks, but the crew was killed right on the verge of what might have been the final tests. There was also a theory that we could use the Matrix to make sparks through a similar means."

"Matrix?" I asked.

Optimus turned to me, "The Autobot Matrix of Leadership, a sacred relic that is the symbol of hope for our people. There are many legends about it and it is known to be able to reformat a select few transformers."

"Namely the new prime," Arcee added, "but it can sometimes be used to heal 'bots. I'm only alive today because of that."

"That function is not reliable though." Optimus elaborated, "It only works when it chooses to. Arcee lives not because of my actions, but because it was not her time to die."

Miko got the point back to center, "So basically you fired these baby 'bots to the corners of the Earth to keep them out of 'con hands, but if they're captured Megatron could make more 'cons?"

Hot Rod's expression was grave, "Worse. The techs said that the process might give the new spark traits of the parents. What I'm saying is he could use the research to mass produce an army of Megatron Juniors. One of him is bad enough, can you imagine what his offspring would be like?"

Bulkhead shivered, "That... would not be good."

Ratchet frowned, "It's worse than that."

"What could be worse than an army of Megatrons?"

The medic turned, "Protoforms are sheathed in energon that is in a state of fluctuation between energy and matter. If those pods are breached and a catalyst introduced-"

Hot Rod went wide-eyed, "Anything within miles of it would be vaporized."

I gasped, and it hurt, but that wasn't important, "How big a blast are we talking here?"

"I aimed for areas away from civilizations, but at least of couple of them could kill a few thousand humans if set off."

Arcee sighed, "Hot-Shot, you sure know how to make things more complicated don't you."

"Don't you of all 'bots talk about making things more complicated than they need to be." That line from him caught my attention. Who were they to each other? That made it sound like they were an item once, "I didn't know about the unstable energon thing. I'm not a tech!" He moved over to the console, entering some numbers, "It's not a problem if we recover them. I have the coordinates I launched them to, we can-" Hot Rod suddenly stopped, his expression going blank in realization of something he wished he hadn't.

"What is it?" Arcee pressed.

"I just remembered... my ship has the research data on it and the coordinates."

"You didn't _delete_ it?"

"I thought we would want it! We need to move fast. Soundwave will be able to crack the defenses with enough time."

"You _idiot_!"

"I didn't have time to copy the research data. Excuse me for wanting to save our species from extinction and maintain the one remaining legacy of my crew!"

"Enough." Optimus interjected, "We will split up and recover as much as we can."

Ratchet sighed, "There's only six of us Optimus and six objectives. Arcee is fit enough for salvage, but if there's battle she won't be anywhere near one hundred percent and we will stretched too thin to aid anyone that gets in trouble."

Arcee stood up for herself, "I can handle it."

Hot Rod spoke up again, "My ship will probably bring the most attention. The other places would probably be completely combat free since the 'cons wouldn't have the exact coordinates yet."

Optimus nodded, "True. Hot Rod and I will double up and salvage the data from the ship. Ratchet will remain on standby. Bring up the map and we shall see which of the pods we must recover with the greatest haste."

Ratchet obliged, "The pods closest to civilization are here, here, and here. Those are the most dangerous and the easiest for the decepticons to locate."

Optimus ran through the possible scenarios in his mind, "The Everglades, the Amazon, and the Tokyo Bay."

Miko went wide-eyed, "How the heck is right next to Tokyo far from civilization?"

Hot Rod shrugged, "It was a mistake in the heat of the moment."

Optimus turned to Miko, "If I recall correctly, you are originally from that country."

"Yeah."

"Bulkhead. You are the best equipped for diving and our best bet for lifting the pod from the bay. Take Miko with you, but not to the site. She speaks the language and would be able to smooth things over better with locals if they spot you."

"Alright, Optimus, if you say so."

Miko jumped with excitement, "Yes! Tokyo is awesome! Plus I know the perfect excuse for Bulkhead, and the places we should avoid."

Optimus continued, "Bumblebee, scan some all-terrain tires and go recover the pod in the Everglades. Arcee will handle the Amazon. Of the three it seems to be the least likely to draw decepticons and the terrain would play well into her strengths as an agile fighter."

"Good choice, Optimus." Arcee had to agree.

Ratchet glanced at me and then turned to Optimus, "It may seem a strange request, Optimus, but I would like you to allow Jack to accompany her."

Both Arceee and I exclaimed our surprise, but Arcee was the most adamant, "He's still hurt!"

"So are you. He's in good enough condition now to ride on your vehicle mode and he can probably move around without risking his health. Do you remember what I mentioned to you earlier?"

Hot Rod was in the dark on the matter and Optimus seemed equally perplexed, but both of them knew we had no time to discuss it. He was talking about the odd effect I had on her health. For some reason, humans made energon better, and that made 'bots heal faster. Arcee still shook her head, "I could take Raf for that. Jack's not in any condition to risk conflict with 'cons."

"Raf wouldn't work as well." Ratchet noted, and motioned at me, "Just trust me and take him."

Arcee looked at me, concerned. So I put her mind at ease, "I'm fine Arcee. I actually feel a lot better. I won't be jumping around, but I promise to stay out of your way and keep away from the 'cons if they come."

She frowned... still worried, "Fine."

I got the feeling we were both thinking back at the same time, and both feeling a bit uneasy.

* * *

><p><em>About a year ago...<em>

I sighed, looking at the failing grade on my science project.

"It's just one bad grade, Jack. You do pretty well normally so I don't think it will bring down your evaluation any."

"My average, Arcee. This isn't a military school structure. The final grades are averages of all my other grades."

"Same thing, just different terms and slightly different methods." she mused as we chatted in a corner of the base just moments after I'd reported my grade to the others alongside Miko and Raf. Arcee was leaning casually on a side of the platform I was standing on.

"Yeah, it's no big deal, but I got an earful from my mom and I'm really bummed out about it anyway."

"Sorry, Jack. I should have refused Ratchet's help more strongly. I could have actually pulled rank on him."

I shook my head, "It's my fault too. I could have said no, but I blew off the responsibility. In hindsight I should have suggested we work on it where he couldn't see us and let him think I used his."

"Yeah."

"Its not like I wasn't enjoying it. Working on something with you like that was really nice."

Arcee was slightly taken aback, but brushed it aside, "I... kinda liked it too. Just tackling a silly trivial problem with a friend with no real pressure was a nice change of pace." something suddenly occurred to her, "Come to think of it, why did you decide to make a motorcycle engine? Your project was way more complicated than what the others picked."

"Well. I like motorcycles." I admitted, slightly embarrassed for some reason.

Arcee grinned, "I noticed. I recall a certain person proclaiming his love for me and then stroking all my feminine curves with incredibly detailed adoration."

"That was..." I found myself backpedaling a little, but caught myself, "Haha, sorry about that. I didn't know you were alive at the time. Boy, I probably really creeped you out."

She laughed, "Yeah. I admit I nearly jumped out of my alt mode when you did that, but when you sat on me I really just wanted you to go away."

"Sorry."

Realizing she'd misspoken, Arcee held her hands up as if to push back the misunderstanding, "I don't hold it against you, no need to say you're sorry. It was kind of weird and embarrassing in hindsight, but its nothing. It didn't bother me that much."

"Good. I wouldn't want you to think I'm weird."

"Jack, you're having a conversation with a two-story tall transforming robot about how you accidentally sexually harassed her. Even as that robot and not a human, I think you qualify as a bit odd." she teased, "Not that I mind. It's a good odd."

I had to admit, the situation was weird, especially since I was still slightly attracted to the robot in question. Maybe. I still wasn't totally positive what the strange feeling I had for her was. I barely knew her, but there was something there. Like a kind of chemistry or something that was different from friendship. I had no siblings so I couldn't compare it to a sisterly bond, and I was pretty sure I wasn't in love with her. It was confusing to say the least, but I really enjoyed every moment I spent with her.

"Something wrong, Jack? You kinda spaced out there."

Snapping to attention, I shook my head, "No, I was just thinking. Anyway, I don't think of you guys as any different than the rest of us. You just happen to be bigger, stronger, and from somewhere else. You have the same feelings as we do, so you might as well be the same."

Arcee seemed a little surprised again, but quickly smiled very slightly in approval, "Well, thank you Jack. If every human on the planet had the same opinion I'm sure we wouldn't need to hide."

"I'm sure someday you'll be able to call this place home and walk down the streets like every other person."

Arcee suddenly turned away, her expression turned grim.

I could tell I'd made her think about her real home: Cybertron. When they'd first landed, there was a chance she might have one day been able to return, but Megatron had turned the place into a hive of ravenous undead monstrosities. It was almost certainly hopeless, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you homesick."

The weary autobot shook the memories from her thoughts and put on a kind expression, "It's fine. I miss it, but Earth is my home now. I'll accept that one day."

"I don't want you to give up hope on Cybertron. Something might change."

"Yeah... but..." she sighed, "Let's talk about something else."

"Alright..." I was at a loss for words as to what subject we could shift to.

I seemed that for a while Arcee was at a loss as well, but then something occurred to her, "Have you ever been camping?"

"No. Not really, why do you ask?"

"No reason, I just figured it would be a chance to get to know more about the planet and get a change of scenery. I can't get away often or for very long... but I just got in the mood for it I guess."

"Well that's fine. I'll look into getting some camping supplies. I have a bit of money I was setting aside to buy a motorcycle."

"You sure you want to use that money?"

I smiled,"Do I need another bike?"

* * *

><p>End of flashback...<p>

We've never taken that camping trip, but a week later we'd planned on it. There was an energon spike in the woods of Montana, and we had fully intended to take a working holiday, but then it turned out it wasn't an energon deposit or a crashed probe. It was Airachnid's ship...

"Jack, let's go. This is no time for spacing out." Arcee ordered, notably lacking conviction. Maybe she'd recalled bad woodland memories as well. Putting the past aside, things were changing. I could feel it in the air. It was like the calm before the storm. I'm sure that I wasn't the only one that felt like this mission was only the prelude to what was coming next. I'm even more sure that none of us were expecting it to change things so much.

Next Chapter: Scourge

Preview: The race for the protoforms begins, a new threat appears, and more flashbacks!

Note: Thanks for the reviews, but a bit of feedback in them would also be appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5: Scourge

Chapter 5: Scourge

We rolled through the groundbridge and almost instantly I was forced to swat an errant mosquito that had attacked with surprising haste. I couldn't help but feel a bit of deja vu. Like the last time I'd come to the woods I wasn't wearing bug repellant, but this time we had the argument of a deadline to make to explain it. Slight risk of malaria aside, there were bigger things on my mind than bugs. Namely those memories with a _certain_ bug in them, the whole 'baby bot bombs thing', wondering about Hot Rod, and there was still... that image I couldn't stop thinking about.

Arcee's side mirror looked up at me, "You okay, Jack?"

I realized I'd been zoning out again, so I returned my hand to the handlebar and nodded, "Yeah, I'm just a little out of it I guess. Busy few days."

I could almost _feel_ Arcee frown, even though she had no face in her current form. It was probably just from how long and well we knew each other, but her emotional shifts were always easy to tell even without a face to read, "I'm sorry, Jack. You should be resting... I didn't want you to have to go right back out into the field so fast. What does Ratchet think you are?"

"A miracle cure apparently." I was about to say something else, but I realized Arcee wasn't moving very fast, "Arcee... you should probably go a bit faster." I tapped the device clipped to her handlebars for me to pinpoint the pod we were after, "We've got a lot of ground to cover."

Arcee shook slightly in surprise, as if she didn't notice she'd been going so slow. Carefully and gradually, she sped up, "How fast is enough? I don't want-"

I cut her off, mildly pissed off at being coddled, "Arcee I'm fine. I'm actually not in that much pain. As long as you don't make any breakneck turns or jump off things I'm good to go."

She twitched slightly, "Sorry..."

I sighed heavily, eased on the breaks, and stepped off of her vehicle form, "Let's walk for a little bit."

She was probably tempted to ask if I could walk well enough, but decided not to, "Alright. Sounds good."

Once she'd changed to herself I passed her the energon detector that had been mounted in front of me. She looked it over and quickly located the pod on the map while I was stashing the holster Ratchet had put together. The simple trinket had been an invention of practicality rather than necessity. After all, Arcee couldn't read the device in vehicle mode, so when looking for things she normally had to stop and look at it. Right after our first scouting trip together... as badly as it had gone, Ratchet had the idea of building a holster that I could hook to her vehicle form and rather than have the device be stored away in her transformation, I would be able to put it there and read it for her. Faster scouting on missions safe enough for me to join in.

I wasn't thinking about that at the time though, slogging through the moist ground of the Amazon I was too annoyed, tired, and generally out-of-it to think about much other than everything that was going wrong or had gone wrong. "Any 'con signals?"

"None." she turned her com to a particular channel, "Optimus, any 'cons on your end?"

Arcee opened the link so I could hear he prime's reply, "A few vehicons when we approached, but we seem to have beaten Soundwave to the scene. We will keep you updated."

The link was closed and Arcee pointed into the distance, "It's about a mile that way. Let's hope it wasn't breached so we can safely groundbridge it out." she checked to see if I was still carrying the repair kit that we'd need if the pod was leaking, "Want me to carry that?"

I set out in the direction she'd pointed, still a bit annoyed, "I'm good."

Following me, Arcee stared into the detector and kept talking, even though I could tell she was hesitant, "While we're en route do you need to talk? We've got time and-"

"Did you want to talk?" I snapped.

"I'm not..."

"Not what?"

She stepped past me and knelt down in my path to confront me. Her concern was far more obvious than her annoyance, "I'm sorry, Jack, you just seem really out of it and I'm worried. I've got a feeling I know what's bothering you, but I don't really know how to talk about it."

I looked away, "There's nothing wrong."

She rightfully didn't believe me, "Yes there is."

I didn't reply.

"Jack, I hate when we're like this. I'm not good at dancing around people's feelings."

Looking around, the trees and the situation. Her holding a detector and looking for a pod... it brought back memories. Those memories brought back more recent ones. Like Silas face... and the blood...

"Jack..., if you need to talk about Silas' death, then talk. You don't have to act tough around me. I understand what you're going though."

"We're on a deadline you know."

"So your legs are wired to your eyes and mouth now? Come on. Walk and talk." she smiled, stood and motioned for me to follow.

Several moments of silence passed, "I just..." I sighed, "How do I even feel about it? I feel... blank... empty... my mind is going so many directions I don't know."

Arcee looked over at me then up at the sky, "Let me tell you a story, Jack. Maybe a bit of perspective will help." I nodded, so she started, "It was a prison complex in Kaon."

"The decepticon capital city?"

"Yeah. This was before I was reformatted into this model, so I wasn't quite as skilled at stealth as I am now. Seriously, whoever thought it was a good idea to assign the pink and yellow 'bots to be scouts on a planet that is almost entirely gray has a good blast to the face coming from me and Bee."

"You used to be pink?"

She laughed, "Yeah, and taller than Hot Rod. We're getting off topic though. My color and size were a big factor in how I got there, but the point is what happened there." Arcee paused, "I can understand what you mean when you say it's not easy to talk about or to know what to feel... In that prison the 'cons pit us against each other and forced us to fight to the death. I nearly died in my first match, but seeing how someone who was supposed to be my comrade was willing to kill me to live... I started fighting back."

I was stunned, "The first person you ever killed was an Autobot?"

"No... thank god no. I'd never kill them... but when I refused the 'cons would execute them in front of me then beat me unconscious."

"I-I'm really sorry, Arcee."

"What do you have to apologize for? You weren't even born yet. What could you have done anyway?"

"I could have... been there. Maybe thought of something."

Arcee looked away from me, "Thanks... but I wouldn't have wanted you there. That place was hell. I only kept my sanity because I was too pissed off to go nuts. When Optimus' team passed through the prison they set all of us free. I killed every single 'con that got in the way of getting my fellow inmates out. Technically the first person I ever killed was a random guard."

"I don't think it's the same. You just mowed them down. I... I watched Silas die. I made sure he was dead. I chose to kill him."

"So did I. The first kill I really count was the guy who had been running the 'games'. I won't recount what I did to him... but I don't think you're capable of that much violence. It wasn't pretty... and it hurt me as much as I enjoyed it. Actually it hurt more later _because_ I enjoyed it so much. Knowing I'm capable of that _still_ hurts, long after losing count of how many lives I've taken."

"I'm sorry..."

Arcee stopped and knelt next to me again, "It's fine. _I'm_ fine. _You'll_ _be_ fine. It's perfectly normal to feel like you feel right now, no matter how much Silas deserved it. You've got a good heart and it hurts a lot when you lose the part of yourself that was innocent. What matters is that you _keep_ that pain. If you forget that, then you're Megatron." Arcee frowned, "I wish I could have been there for you... and done what had to be done so you didn't have to."

I stepped forward, shaking my head in protest, "No. I'm glad it was me and not you."

"Jack?"

"Think about it, Arcee. You guys are here with an ideal of protecting humans. Killing a 'con for the first time is one thing. Killing Silas would have been going through that pain all over again, right? Maybe worse. Wouldn't it be like going against something you stand for?"

My partner was taken aback, "Yeah... that's pretty insightful of you actually..., I could have dealt with it though. I don't min-"

"_I_ don't mind being stuck with this feeling if it means you can avoid something _worse_ for a little longer."

"Well... thank you." Arcee stood, a look of amusement appearing on her face, "I never thought you'd be promising to protect my innocence when we started this conversation. Didn't think I had any left to protect... but thanks." she looked at me with that amused expression for several moments, "You feeling better now?"

I nodded, "Yeah."

Arcee handed me the detector again and changed back into vehicle mode, "Then saddle up, cowboy. You can lead."

I really hoped that nickname wasn't going to stick.

* * *

><p><em>About a year before...<em>

"Stop doing it so hard." Arcee griped as she stopped me, "If you do that at higher speeds you'll break it or worse."

"Sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"No...," she insisted, but she sounded frustrated enough to make me believe she was lying. "Just do it slower."

"I'll be more gentle. How's this?"

"Better. Much better. You can go faster now if you want, but not too much. This is still your first time you know."

"Alright. I'm going for it. Are you ready?"

"Looking forward to it."

I eased up to a higher speed, pushing softly against her metal and holding her firmly as I leaned in close. She groaned a bit in protest, struggling slightly, "That's too fast, Jack, you're getting impatient."

"I'm only going 50 mph."

"Whose the instructor here, you or me?"

I sighed, "You."

"And do I technically need to teach you how to drive a motorcycle? Does this benefit me in any way?"

"Not really."

"So when I tell you to do something are you going to listen or not? Because we can stop this any time."

"Fine. I'll go slower."

"Thank you."

I'd asked Arcee to teach me to drive, since I realized I never actually learned and wasn't learning by just riding her. While I was in no rush to get a different bike, not knowing how to drive would probably be trouble at some point. She agreed, mostly after I brought up how hard it would be to explain why I can't drive any other motorcycle when so many people have seen what they think is me doing it. It's not like we didn't have plenty of time on the way to and from school. We even had a good system down where I'd squeeze her handles to take over and she'd push the side panels of her transformation lightly against my legs to let me know when she wanted me to stop. We already had it down to an exact science, but I wasn't all that surprised. After that incident at the street race with Bumblebee, I'd realized just how much chemistry me and Arcee had with each other.

"Pay attention, lover-boy." Arcee pushed against my legs, threatening to take over. She was still teasing me about my attempts at getting Sierra, a girl from my class, to notice me.

Bringing my attention back to the road, I apologized, "I was paying attention, I was just thinking about something else at the same time."

"Keep your focus. You're supposed to be learning how to drive. You can't get too comfortable with having me hold your hand through this. Motorcycles require more attention."

I thought back to how much Arcee had complained about Sierra not knowing how the ride on her back properly and how long Sierra'd taken to pick it up compared to me. "Well I get practice with the balance thing all the time. No problems there. I know when and how to lean in turns."

"I know, but doing it while steering is different." my guardian stated plainly, "Let's take it up to the next speed. Maybe you'll focus at street-speed."

I took it up to fifty-five. It seemed a bit strange, but going faster seemed to make steering a lot easier, or maybe it was the fact that Arcee was letting me do more of the steering. Actually, it felt like I was _completely_ in control and it was exhilarating. Even more than riding at much higher speeds. My heart was starting the beat faster and I couldn't help but smile. I was driving! I was really doing it myself!

"This is great!" I laughed.

Suddenly, Arcee started quivering uncomfortably, and I was sure I heard a whimper. Coming from Arcee, it was one of the weirder sounds I'd ever heard.

"Are you okay?"

She signaled that she was taking over again and replied, a slight tinge of something unusual in her tone, "Y-yeah... I'm fine. Let's call it quits though. We're near the base."

I wasn't convinced, "That sounded like it hurt. You sound like you're in pain. Did I do something wrong?"

"No... it's fine..." she hesitated, then forced firmness into her voice, "I'm just not really in the mood anymore. You don't really need any more lessons anyway. You've got the basics already."

Strange... it sounded almost like she'd been afraid of something. Maybe putting her steering into another person's hands was a completely new experience. Maybe she didn't like it... Thinking about it I could see why doing that would be scary for a 'bot and not feel very good. As we pulled into the base, I dismounted and she took on her robot mode. I looked up to the towering robot and noted the slightly pained expression on her face.

"Sorry about that."

A little surprised, Arcee turned to me and assured me, "I told you: You didn't do anything wrong. You did great."

"No, I mean I'm sorry I asked you. I didn't think about how it might make you feel. I imagine having someone else steer you feels weird. This is probably your first time doing it too. My bad."

My protector was taken aback again, one of many times she had been and would be in the future. She quickly hid a smile, "It not that bad. Just... new. Maybe we can try again later."

Something about how she'd said that made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Even though I knew she didn't mean it to be, her words made the act feel kind of intimate... and that was kind of embarrassing. My thoughts on that were broken into by a text. It was Sierra. What timing. "Had a lot of fun the other day. Sorry about the leaning thing. Riding is a lot harder than I thought. You must be pretty agile!"

Sierra's trouble with riding made me think back to something my friend Roger had said about riding a motorcycle back when I first 'got mine'. He said it was all about trust. Like how you need to trust your bike and yourself when you turn or you'll be off-balance. The fact I was so good at riding Arcee so fast was probably the fact that I trusted her completely, and Arcee probably freaked out when I was driving her because she didn't trust me. It was a bit painful to think my trust was one-sided, but I could understand. She'd lost one of her best friends not long ago. Of course there would be walls.

"Are you gonna text her back?" Arcee asked casually, giving me a sisterly smile that said, 'Good job getting the girl interested. You owe me.'

"Maybe later."

"I'm not giving her a ride again though. I'm not a taxi service or your wing-man." Arcee reminded me, "Plus that girl can't ride at all. Such a headache." The 'bot strode off, annoyed at the memory of the experience. I didn't argue.

I was to occupied with my own thoughts. Staring at the message I found myself torn. I liked Sierra. I'd liked her for a long time actually, but Arcee... things with Arcee were complicated. I kept finding myself getting closer and closer to her, but no closer to understanding what our bond was exactly. Did I like her? Was she my big sister? Was she my best friend? Was she a mix of things? Why the heck did I have to have so much girl trouble? Heck, before Arcee nobody even really noticed me. She'd changed my life completely.

Ratchet talking suddenly broke into my thoughts, "Oh, Arcee. Good timing. I found a strange energon reading in the woods of Montana. I need you to go check it out."

"Is it 'cons?"

"There don't seem to be any in the area. It appears to be an energon deposit, but we need scans from the site to be sure. If it is we can start harvesting it before the decepticons detect it."

"We are running a bit low." Arcee nodded, "You want to come, Jack? Things have been pretty quiet so we can grab the chance to have a working holiday."

"Sounds good. I still have that camping gear I bought last week, let me grab it."

Ratchet looked at Arcee with mild surprise, "You _never_ take holidays."

Arcee shrugged, "It a working holiday. I'm sure the change of scenery will be good for both of us."

It really was nice to have a change of pace and I'm sure the fresh air would have been great for clearing my head if there hadn't been a certain spider infestation. Even with the chaos that broke out, it did help me. Fighting for my life, seeing Arcee absolutely terrified and pushing past it, made me understand how much and what she really meant to me and what I meant to her. I wouldn't say it made our relationship totally clear, but it was a step in the right direction.

* * *

><p>End flashback...<p>

I guided Arcee down the right route, squeezing her handles and turning gently to keep on solid ground and moving closer to the pod. I gave her back control every so often to check the detector again. The same procedure repeated many times over the mile of terrain the we had to cross to get there. Since our early misadventures, we'd grown to trust each other completely, and it made this kind of task a heck of a lot faster. Things were going smoothly on our end, but it wasn't fated to stay that way.

Optimus Prime connecting to every team at once proved that, the point of the matter being backed up by the sound of lasers and explosions, "Autobots, we have engaged the enemy at the crash site. There is no sign of Soundwave, only vechicons. Be on your guard. He may have already retrieved the data."

Arcee slowed to a stop and transformed smoothly from beneath me, setting me gently on the ground in the process with no visible effort, "Dammit, I'm not picking up any 'con signals, but if the pod is breached it might be concealing them." She reached for the detector so I handed it over, "Hmm... this isn't good... Ratchet, I'm sending you the readings on a secure band. Does this mean what I think it means?" She started walking towards the pod stealthily. I knew better than to follow.

Ratchet replied over our coms, "If you think it means the pod was opened and not breached, then yes."

I gasped, "Someone opened it? Decepticons?"

"Perhaps." The doctor pondered, "But it seems too soon for them to have gotten through the security on the pod. Maybe there was a malfunction?"

Optimus spoke up between shots at the attacking drones, "Ratchet, bridge to a safe distance and back her up. If the pod is open you need to stabilize that protoform. If the decepticons are on-site then the extra firepower will be needed."

"Understood."

"Arcee, advance to survey, but do not engage. Ratchet will signal you when he arrives at Jack's position. When he does, fall back to launch any necessary operations. I'll trust your discretion in the matter."

"Right. Arcee out." she motioned for me to stay where I was, I nodded, and she advanced, the huge trees of the Amazon providing ample cover. I found myself thinking it would be a nice place for another trip with the 'bots, since the trees were so big they were autobot-scaled. It was kind of otherworldly in a way. Seeing Arcee moving at a distance in those big trees made it almost seem like she was human-size.

Ratchet was there in a few minutes, and Arcee was quick to return as planned and with a report, "This isn't good. There's a squad of drones, and with them is that bastard Megatron. We're outgunned, but he hasn't done anything to the protoform yet."

Ratchet grimaced, "Neither of us are a match for Megatron."

Arcee was loathe to admit it, but in her injured condition there was no arguing it, "Optimus, we need more back-up, it's Megatron. Can you get to us?"

Optimus was quick in his reply, "Raphael, open a groundbridge. Hot Rod, have you completed the download?"

"Not yet, go ahead. I'll be fine alone. There's only drones here."

"Very well. I'm en route. Advance and engage, hit-and-run attacks only. I will reinforce you as soon as I arrive."

"Understood." Arcee replied, turning to Ratchet, "We're going in hard and fast."

Ratchet nodded, "It's been a while, but I'm with you, Commander."

They went into action. I knew better than to follow, but something felt wrong. What was Megatron doing with the protoform? He couldn't be fathering a decepticon. There was no way he could have studied the research data enough to do something completely unheard of like that. Against my better judgment, I moved forward, sneaking up to the scene as the sound of laser fire started, then ended far too quickly, leaving a sick feeling in my stomach. When I got there, Arcee and Ratchet had been pinned behind cover.

Megatron loomed over the pod, grinning in victory, "Autobots, you are just in time to bear witness to the start of a new age! So nice of you to provide a conduit for my greatest experiment!"

The 'con opened his own chest and reached inside. Ratchet stood and tried to blast him directly in the spark, but it was no good, there was too much distance and enemy fire to line up that kind of shot. Megatron yanked a shard of something from his chest, some kind of purple crystal charged with what must have been the energy of his spark; and he thrust it into the open chest of the protoform, "Arise... SCOURGE!"

Ratchet charged forward, Arcee shouted for him to get down, then laid covering fire for the old 'bots rush. I'll remember the look of horror on his face for years, "Megatron, don't!"

As the protoform's eyes lit up a surge of power erupted from it and coursed through the pod. Some kind of beam came out from the machine, maybe a scan of some kind. It swept across the battlefield, blinding Ratchet, Megatron, and the assembled drones for a moment. Shaking his head, Ratchet glanced at his arm for some reason as the protoform rose from the pod and changed into a large, jagged, black figure that bore features of every transformer the strange beam had hit. Megatron was overjoyed.

It struck, a large hand sinking into the back of an unsuspecting vehicon. Even though his face looked a lot like Ratchet's, the _thing_ called Scourge had an expression very much like Megatron's as it drained the very life from its victim. It chuckled, changing its other arm into a familiar beam device... an energon gun like Ratchet's. It didn't fire normal energon though. What came out and filled the dead drone was _dark_ energon and Scourge delighted as the corpse came back to life while still impaled, screaming and screeching in pain and rage. It was enough nightmare-fuel for the next month and a half.

Things were definitely not pretty. I could only hope Prime arrived in time to keep the 'cons from gutting us all like that unlucky drone.

Next Chapter: Nemesis

Preview: Scourge attacks, things get _worse_, and MORE FLASHBACKS!


	6. Chapter 6: Nemesis

Chapter 6: Nemesis

Megatron loomed over the crashed stasis pod, grinning in victory, "Autobots, you are just in time to bear witness to the start of a new age! So nice of you to provide a conduit for my greatest experiment!"

The 'con opened his own chest and reached inside. Ratchet stood and tried to blast him directly in the spark, but it was no good, there was too much distance and enemy fire to line up that kind of shot. Megatron yanked a shard of something from his chest, some kind of purple crystal charged with what mus have been the energy of his spark, and he thrust it into the open chest of the protoform, "Arise... SCOURGE!"

Ratchet charged forward, Arcee shouted for him to get down, then laid covering fire for the old 'bots rush. I'll remember the look of horror on his face for years, "Megatron, don't!"

A surge of power erupted from the protoform as its eyes lit up and coursed through the pod. Some kind of beam lashed out and blinded Ratchet, Megatron, and the assembled drones. Shaking his head, the medic bot glanced at his arm for some reason. From the pod rose the protoform, suddenly changed to a large, jagged, black figure that bore features of every transformer the strange beam had hit. Megatron was overjoyed.

It struck, a large hand sinking into the back of an unsuspecting vehicon. Even though his face looked a lot like Ratchet's, the _thing_ called Scourge had an expression very much like Megatron's as it drained the very life from its victim. It chuckled, changing its other arm into a familiar beam device... an energon gun like Ratchet's. It didn't fire normal energon though. What came out and filled the dead drone was _dark_ energon and Scourge delighted as the corpse came back to life while still impaled, screaming and screeching in pain and rage. It was enough nightmare fuel for the next month and a half.

Ratchet opened fire again, trying to kill the thing as it ran roughshod through the vehicon ranks, killing and re-animating the squadron of drones with terrifying speed. Nothing seemed to leave much of a dent though, every time it drained energon what wounds had been inflicted were mended almost completely. Megatron delighted, laughing like the maniac that he was before blasting Ratchet squarely in the chest and sending the 'bot flying back.

"Ratchet!" Arcee called out, firing quickly at Megatron, who ducked promptly behind the pod.

"Kill them my minions. Kill them all!"

Suddenly, Scourge turned, threw the pod away as if it weighed nothing, and grinned at Megatron, "Now would _you_ take an order like that Megatron? You should be more polite! Ask me nicely!"

The leader of the decepticons was stunned, then angered, "I made you! I am your lord and master! Obey me!"

Scourge kicked his creator in the face, sending him flying back, "I think you need a few lessons in proper etiquette. I'm not your servant, I serve only one lord and master. The same you serve."

"I SERVE NO ONE!"

Taking advantage of the distraction, an arriving Optimus plowed into the line of corrupted drones in his vehicle mode, transforming in the middle of the group and whirling around with his new axe to devastating effect. The initial contact took out nearly half their number and several more went down when Arcee advanced to support the prime and Ratchet fired on the enemy ranks from his prone position. Scourge turned and smiled a very Megatron-like grin.

"The prime... Good. Now I don't have to look for you." the rogue 'con leveled his dark energon gun at the autobot leader, and declared with sarcasm dripping from every word, "For 'Cybertron'!" as he fired.

"Optimus, look out!" seeing Optimus was slow to react, Arcee dove in the way and took the full brunt of the beam for her commander, falling motionless to the ground.

"ARCEE!" I called out, terrified that she might have been killed.

Scourge shrugged, "Oh well. This is fun too." he fired again, directly at Arcee this time, coursing dark energon through her systems.

She stood, roaring in pain and fury, dashing at the 'con himself and ripping into the drones that got in her way. Scourge calmly directed the surviving vehicon minions to slow her down and opened a com channel, speaking in Megatron's voice, "Open a groundbridge. Now."

Megatron stared in disbelief at the demonstration, and stood in protest, "Who the hell do you think you are?"

The 'con in question grinned, "The future."

Optimus moved to reinforced Arcee, not quite realizing something was wrong. He was quickly educated when Arcee swatted him away using one of the drones as a weapon, "RAAAAAEGHHHH!"

Watching in shock as Prime hit the ground, I gawked at my partner, "Arcee what are you doing?"

Scourge laughed, a groundbridge forming behind him, "She's not your friend anymore. She's a nemesis now."

Megatron pursued his errant spawn through the bridge and it quickly closed. The last of the drones dying by Arcee's hands an exploding in a cloud of debris didn't solve the biggest problem. Namely an Arcee out of her mind with anger and rushing at the nearest living thing: me. Ratchet had recovered by this time and tackled her mid-charge to the ground, leveling his own energon gun at her..

"Hold still, a good dose of pure energon will snap you right out of- ARGH!" Ratchet cried out as Arcee lashed out with a bladed arm and cut his cannon arm off. The lone cure for the poison apparently flying end over end through the air. A boot to the gut sent Ratchet tumbling away.

I ran forward, "Arcee, no!" Doubling over in pain from my injuries, I clutched my stomach. "Gah!"

Arcee lashed out randomly and sent the empty pod sailing at Optimus, who shot it mid-air and blew it into hundreds on pieces. Shrapnel filled the air and the concussive force of the blast sent me ad Arcee tumbling. I suddenly felt the stabbing pain in my stomach get worse as my wound reopened. The pain was so great I nearly blacked out.

As my vision cleared my mind struggled to piece together scattered events for what seemed like an eternity in that single moment. A falling body part shook the daze of the blast from my mind. Not human, robot, which was just as bad to me...

"ARCEE!" I shouted in despair and concern, but then realized the arm was mostly white and not blue; not to mention much too large. It wasn't my partner's... it was Ratchet's... finally landing.

"RAAAHGGHHH!" A familiar voice bellowed in savage rage, the source rushing forward with eyes full of madness. Eyes that had centered on me the instant I shouted her name.

"Arcee! Snap out of it! You can fight this!" I begged. I didn't back down, didn't run. I trusted her.

Prime came from the side, intercepting her charge with a backhanded strike with all his weight and momentum thrown into it. The attack was broad, the damage spread over a wider point of contact to stun rather than bring harm. Even so, the strength and size of the much larger 'bot sent Arcee flying. Not that flying a few hundred feet was going to do much to an acrobatic warrior like her. She landed easily in a crouched pose and was rushing at Optimus almost the very same instant she landed and crossed the distant almost before Optimus could pull his hand back from striking.

"RAAAAWWWRGGGH!"

A trio of strikes came at the autobot leader, nearly all at once digging into the metal plating on his blocking arms. A kick came too fast to follow as Arcee twirled and planted a foot in his gut. The blow didn't do much damage, but the pained grunt and the prime staggering back showed that it had at least _some_ effect. The flying dropkick Arcee aimed right at his face proved even more effective, sending the big bot flying towards the ground and stunning him. She flipped in the air after contact, landed on her feet, and tackled him before Optimus even had time to hit the ground. Despite the difference in size, Arcee drove her commander into a tree... actually through a tree, which fell over, the shadow of impending doom looming over me.

"Move!" Ratchet dashed in the way of the falling tree and took the impact with his shoulder, grabbing the tree and whipping it around to swat Arcee off of Optimus, who had been hard-pressed to fend off her frantic attempts to rip the spark from his chest.

Dropping the tree, mostly by accident, Ratchet lumbered very to Optimus while Arcee struggled to stand, helping the prime to his feet, "By the AllSpark, I knew she could fight well, but I didn't think the gap between us was this drastic!"

Optimus, "It is the dark energon, Ratchet. The substance amplifies the physical abilities of living transformers, but increases aggression."

"I know that, but usually berserker furies entail loss of skill!"

I pleaded with them, "Isn't there a way to reverse this? There has to be something we can do!"

"It should wear off... eventually. The problem is keeping her from slagging us long enough for it to do so."

"How long will that take."

"RAAAHHHHH!" Arcee shrieked as she came hurtling through the air at Ratchet.

"Too long, GAH!" Ratchet was driving back and to the ground.

Optimus tried to grab her from behind in a bearhug but she twirled and nearly decapitated him with one of her arm blades then unleashed a furious combination of attacks that Optimus barely managed to block. He countered with a series of jabs, but the scout was too small and quick. Optimus still repelled most of her next string of attacks, but he was being pushed to his limits. I don't doubt Optimus' combat skill one bit, but all the factors against him: trying not to hurt her, not being used to fighting such a small opponent, and Arcee being pumped with dark energon; were all making the tussle a living nightmare for him. Probably in every meaning of those words. I know the sight of it was one for me.

"Arcee, please! Stop this! FIGHT IT!"

There was suddenly the slightest gap in Arcee's ceaseless offense and Optimus showed his own skill by capitalizing with speed you might think was impossible from someone so massive. The quick right straight sent the raging Arcee to the ground and Optimus read her new intent incredibly fast, moving around to get her way as she transformed and charged at me. Her bike form slammed instead into Optimus and her elbow came out to strike him in the face mid-transformation as she quickly resumed her robot mode. He went down hard and Arcee started punching him ruthlessly in the face.

Hardly thinking, I rushed forward and climbed onto Optimus' chest, "Stop it! Arcee, listen to me! We're your friends!"

"MOVE, JACK! SHE CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Time seemed to slow down as her arm turned into a blade and Arcee stabbed down at me without hesitation. As the attack connected I stared up at my partner dumbfounded... the fact that our bond hadn't been enough to snap her out of it sinking in with more pain than her blade ever could.

I couldn't believe things had come to this. My eyes locked to hers as our gazes met, hers crazed and mine betrayed. I barely noticed I hadn't been stabbed, but there was pretty much no difference. Arcee hadn't stopped it, Optimus had. The blade was piercing the arm he was shielding me with. I was too jarred to really register the prime grabbing her attack arm with his free hand and shout for Ratchet. I noticed an energon beam hit Arcee from the side and her crying out in pain... but the thing that would stick out in my mind from that moment – even more than her nearly stabbing me – was when she registered what had happened.

Arcee's eyes had not left mine, so I had the best view of the horror on her face at the sight of my expression. It only got worse when her gaze moved down to her weapon impaling Optimus' arm, the tip inches from my blood-covered torso. "No..." It got even worse as she looked at Optimus, then back to me, "NOOOO!"

She changed to vehicle mode and speed away into the woods faster than I knew she could go. Her last expression and cry were both so horrified that I was worried she might have snapped. I instantly stood and rushed after her, ignoring my wounds and the fact there was no logical way I could ever catch her.

Ratchet called out to me, "Jack wait! You're injuries opened up again! Exertion could kill you!"

"Let him go Ratchet. She needs him right now."

"But, Optimus!"

"He'll be fine."

I found her not far away in what was almost a quivering heap on the ground. She was shaking and wide-eyed, making sounds that could easily have been sobbing. She was frantic, more shaken than I'd ever seen her get. That includes the times I'd seen her have flashbacks of the more traumatic events of her life. Arcee might have been two stories tall, but right then she seemed very small.

"Arcee..." I limped closer.

"Stay away from me, Jack!" she demanded, equal parts sadness and self hate in her voice.

"It's fine. You got hit with dark energon. Apparently it makes you crazy. Nobody holds it against you."

"I do... I stabbed you... nearly killed you... I hurt Optimus."

I chose not to mention the part where she cut off Ratchet's arm, "That's-"

"I should have been able to fight it!" she snapped.

I closed the distance and placed a comforting hand on her leg.

"Seeing that look on your face... seeing you hurt like that and the only thing keeping me from killing you was... Optimus being impaled." she shook.

"Arcee, You didn't stab me. This bleeding is from my wound opening up. I got too close to an explosion."

"I _tried_ to stab you!"

"It's probably no consolation, but you were actually going for Optimus, I got in your way."

Strangely, that did make her calm a little, "That's... not as bad actually... I mean, it's still bad... still bothers me that I nearly killed Optimus... but..."

I raised an eyebrow confused. I meant more to her than Optimus?

She grabbed the sides of her head and tried to calm herself forcefully, "I'd never have forgiven myself if I'd killed you. If you'd died and I'd been the one to do it... Killing Optimus would break me too, but I'm your protector... killing you would-"

I nodded, understanding what she was trying to say, "I get it. It would be the same thing, but breaking everything you stand for rather than just most of it."

She nodded, "Sort of... it a little more complicated than that but... yeah."

I stayed silent and leaned against her leg, just being there for her. It seemed to help.

"Thank the AllSpark it was me that took that shot and not Optimus. I don't think I could have handled the situation as well as him. Especially since he's so much stronger than me. I can't even imagined what he'd be like with all his kindness removed."

I looked her in the eyes, thinking back on what she'd been like, and how much pain it had caused her.

She put on a smile, "Don't give me that look, Jack. I'll be okay. I'm not looking forward to flashbacks of today, but I'll get past it. You'll make sure of that, right?"

"Yeah." I said, the pain in my heart was impossible to conceal.

"We need to get you back to Ratchet so he can pach you up again." She was trying to put on a brave face, but I knew her well enough that this time it was for her own sake as much as mine. She was still trying to push past the heartache of what had nearly happened, trying to push it aside rather than deal with it directly. It was a nasty habit of hers.

I hugged her leg, both for her comfort and mine.

"Jack?" She was stunned. I'd never actually been that prone to physical displays of affection.

Nor did I cry that often, "I'm glad your okay... that.. let's never go through that again okay? Let's avoid getting kidnapped while we're at it too. Okay?

She placed her huge hand gently around me, returned the hug as best as her much larger body would allow, "You've got a deal... I don't want to lose you... or see you hurting."

"Same here..."

We didn't say anything, or separate for several moments. It was actually a com transmission that broke the silence, "This is Hot Rod. I've recovered the data and deleted the main hard-drive. Also takind several pieces that are needed to make the ship fly, just in case. What's the situation at the pods?"

Bulkhead chimed in, "I'm still getting to it, but I'm close. No drones or 'cons yet. Readings looks stable. After I pull it out I'll be needing a groundbridge. Miko, an 'cons on the surface?"

"Nope. All clear."

Bee buzzed a quick report, Arcee translated, "Bumblebee got back with his already."

I stepped back, "That just leaves two that are still out there."

"Yeah."

"No rest for the weary I guess."

Arcee frowned, "You, Jack Darby, are most certainly getting some rest. I didn't even want you along on this mission. I'm going to give Ratchet an earful when we get back. I can understand having you for healing the rest of my wounds, but you're hurt worse than I am."

Feeling strange, I lifted my shirt to check my wound, "Um, Arcee..."

"What?"

"My wound... closed on its own..."

"Yeah?"

I looked up at her mildly perplexed expression. She didn't seem to get it, "Humans don't normally heal this fast."

She went a little wide-eyed in realization, "Wait... so this healing thing works both ways?"

"Looks like it." I took a few steps, "Still hurts like hell though."

"Why are you only healing faster now?" wondered Arcee.

I thought about anything that could have changed and on any theories Ratchet might have had, but not told us. As I ran through events and things that were said, I recalled something the medic had said right before we left. He'd said something about Raf not being as good for healing Arcee's wounds. It hit me then. He must have some kind of data that showed I had a greater effect on Arcee than the others. That might mean that somehow our bond affected the healing factor. Backing up the theory was that fact that our bond had actually changed when the healing started working for me too. I'd pushed the fact aside in my mind because so much was running through my head and happening at the time, but there was definitely a change.

I'd realized I was in love with Arcee. I hadn't always been in love with her and I don't know how long my feelings had turn into something than just platonic... but I loved her. I still love her even now.

"Jack?" Arcee pried, "Have you figured something out?"

I looked at her, then found myself unable to look her in the face anymore, "Yeah... things are probably going to get a heck of a lot more complicated."

Next Chapter: Cyclone

Preview: The heroes deal with the changes happened, muse on Scourge's words, and go after the remaining pods. Can they get the rest before their enemies make more twisted rogue decepticons?

A/N: This chapter was a reference to Nemesis Prime, a version of Optimus Prime corrupted by dark forces. However, Arcee intercepted the blast instead. Another subtle reference is that fact that the Nemesis Prime character is sometimes called Scourge. However, this story's Scourge is not based on Nemesis Prime. Even though you could technically draw some similarities in the fact that this Scourge is an autobot (protoform) twisted by dark energy. If anything, It is very _very_ loosely based on the G1 incarnation of the character.

You win a cookie if you can guess where I'm going with this and name the underlying reference in this arc of the story.


	7. Chapter 7: Cyclone

Chapter 7: Cyclone

"Welcome back, Hot Rod." the small boy at the console smiled and greeted me as I trotted through the groundbridge. From the way he was sitting, he'd been talking to Bumblebee and just gotten done with some hectic action.

I was bushed, but I got the feeling that my scrap with a bunch of vehicons wasn't the most taxing skirmish the group had or would see that day, "How's Arcee's group? Did Prime get to them in time?"

Bee beeped, "Yeah. Problem is Megatron pumped one of the protoforms up with some dark energon. Big trouble. It got away too, after raising hell."

"How much hell?"

"Animating a legion of newly dead and briefly warping Arcee into a mindless killing machine that nearly finished Optimus, Ratchet, and Jack."

I was still learning the humans' names, but Jack I knew. He was the one Arcee called her partner. The distinction and how much she seemed to respect him had left a profound impression on me. She seemed so open around him and didn't criticize anything he did other than trying to keep him out of trouble. She'd never been like that with me. If he meant so much to her, then nearly killing him in a dark energon fueled rage had probably done a number on her.

"Is everyone okay?"

The boy was about to answer, but paused when a transmission from Bulkhead came, asking for a ground bridge. Soon after the big 'bot came in towing a protoform stasis pod, which he placed next to the one Bee had already recovered. Once he did, the small boy came back to my question, answering it for Bulkhead and the girl with him as well, "Optimus and the others are hurt, but according to Ratchet it's nothing that can't be mended over a few days." he turned and spoke directly to me, "Arcee is jarred, but Optimus says she'll be fine too. He said to go after the remaining pods without them and that you're in charge."

"Me?" I replied, startled, "Hasn't Bulkhead been here longer?"

Bulkhead shook his head, "I don't mind. I'm just a soldier, not a leader. Optimus knows what he's doing picking someone else."

"I wonder..." I sighed, not liking the pressure of lives in my hands again at all, "Bring up the map... er... I haven't caught your name kid."

"Raphael." he opened up an image of the world as her introduced himself, "Everyone but Optimus calls me Raf."

"Alright then." I smiled then went about the planning, "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and I are the only 'bots at full fighting condition right now, and we've got only two pods to collect. Bad thing is, that means if we're gonna beat Megatron to them one of us is going to be going at it alone."

Bee buzzed in, "Maybe one of us should hang back at base? That way the third wheel can reinforce whoever needs it?"

"Better than randomly picking which to send two after and only needing one for the one we choose. Plus Optimus' group still aren't back. They might need support."

"We might not have to deal with any more 'con interference." Raf glanced to me, "It seems the 'con that Megatron made isn't exactly a team player and is strong enough to cause some real trouble in the ranks."

"That's good short term, but this new guy can animate dead 'cons and twisted us into raving madbots. Even if the big 'tron wins, he's not going to slag such a useful tool. We have to get the remaining pods before they sort things out so we don't have any more engines of destruction on our hands." I pointed to the map at a point in the mountains of Tibet, "This one is off-road and my vehicle form has a low undercarriage."

Bulkhead slammed his fists together, "Good thing I'm all-terrain then."

"Exactly my thoughts." I hadn't known his alternate mode on Earth, but I knew he was a former Wrecker on Cybertron and most of that group were tanks or trucks. It made sense for him to be a truck on Earth, "The other pod is located here in southern Africa. Not many roads and lots of hills, but I should be able to manage."

"I could go. I'm kitted for hard terrain." Bee beeped.

I shook my head, "Which is why you shouldn't go. You're more versatile than me. If Bulkhead needs help my vehicle form might not be able to handle the mountain roads."

The scout nodded, "Point taken. Good call."

I nodded appreciatively at his words... well bleeps, of approval, "Alright, everyone get ready to roll out. Bridge Bulkhead first."

Raf complied, "Got it. Locking in coordinates one mile from the pod in case of breach and on the clearest route to the point of impact. Good luck, Bulkhead."

"Thanks." the soldier slapped a heavy hand down on my shoulder as he walked by to get in position, "Same to you, chief."

I winced at the title, despite how casually he'd meant it, "You too."

As the 'bot took the form of what the locals called and SUV and drove into the vortex a thought occurred to me. Bumblebee noticed my expression shift as I thought about it, "Something wrong?"

Not really... I was just wondering what's up. It's weird that Optimus couldn't command the mission over com. What's keeping him? Wasn't his leg of the mission over?"

Raf turned around after closing the bridge, "I'm sure everything's fine. Maybe he just needs to focus on clean-up. It would be bad if Cybertronian tech fell into the wrong hands."

"I'm just worried that Arcee might be worse for wear than he's letting on."

A voice came over the line as if on cue, it was Arcee, "Raf, groundbridge. Make it partway between my position and Optimus'."

I opened my channel to the same band, "Everything alright, C.C.? I hear you went through hell... Again."

"Ha. Nothing I can't handle Hot-Shot." she replied. Arcee was okay... technically.

I could tell she wasn't really in much shape for heavy action. If it wasn't wounds it was mental fatigue at the bare minimum. I wasn't sure what had been happening, but Arcee had been on the mend already when I arrived and I was under the impression it had happened recently... very recently. IT was only my own bungling that made it so she had to get back on the field.

"You've got a heck of a lot more stamina than me then. I'm heading out and I'll get it done, but I haven't been this tired since Iacon. High fives for all when I get back. Well... low fives for the little guys."

"I heard that." Jack quipped over his own line, sounded almost as worn as Arcee.

I laughed, "For your information I was talking about Bumblebee." I patted the scout on the head even though he was only about a head shorter than me."

He beeped in protest, "Hey!"

I ignored him, "Technically, Jack, any fives I give you would be high to you."

"This isn't the time for height jokes." Arcee reprimanded me as she came through the bridge with Jack on the back of her vehicle mode.

The slender scout, transformed out from underneath him with well-practiced grace. I was struck by how well they flowed together. It was weird. What the heck were they to each other? I mean, it's not that strange for a transformer like myself to enter relationships with other species. We don't reproduce sexually after all so our relationships tend to be mostly emotional instead of physical, but Jack? He was so small! Plus he was organic. I had no idea at the time how humans reproduced and have never really cared, but most thinking organics tended to veer towards physical relationships. I honestly didn't see how it could work on his end. Then again, I was only thinking about it at the time because seeing my old flame for the first times in centuries was bringing back all the feelings you would imagine. Which includes jealousy of anything that came within two meters of her.

Jack was most certainly closer than two meters. Honestly I couldn't understand how she wasn't stepping on him.

Pushing poorly timed thoughts aside, I walked over to the pair with my normal smirk, "Well I would already be gone if a certain someone wasn't hogging the gate. Where's Prime?"

"He should be along in a second. Last I checked he and Ratchet were doing the clean-up. Something about Ratchet wanting to see how Megatron got past the pod's defenses so fast." she sighed, "It would be easy to tell if I hadn't gotten thing thing blown up... and cut off Ratchet's arm."

I went wide-eyed at the remark, then brushed it off, "It probably just malfunctioned. We were using out-dated tech after all."

Optimus and Ratchet came trudging through the vortex moments later with a bunch of scrap in tow, Ratchet catching my remark, "Well, there's no telling for sure without some in-depth scans and analysis. The only thing I can tell right away is the lock wasn't forced."

The vortex closed and I stepped over to Raf to get right to business, "By the way, here's the data from the Excellion. I nearly forgot to give it to you. Key up the groundbridge to my drop point."

Optimus nodded in approval as the new bridge activated, "Good job at the ship earlier and with assigning tasks while Arcee and I were engaged. More importantly, good luck in your mission. If you need assistance I will be there in an instant."

"Sparks shooting out of your arm and all I'm sure." I smiled at the prime and motioned to his crudely patched arm, "Don't worry about it. We're talking about _me_ here."

Arcee rolled her eyes as I entered vehicle mode to head through the gate, "Yeah, his usual screw-up quota has been met for the day."

"Now that hurts, C.C. That is like a knife right in the spark chamber." I revved my engine, and would've grinned if I had a face at the time, "I'm going to go cry now... excuse me."

With that, I was on my way.

* * *

><p><em>Jack's Perspective<em>

Honestly, I was too tired, mind and body, to get all that bothered by Hot Rod's jokes, arrogance, casual attitude, or (surprisingly) even his relationship with Arcee. I was just _that_ tired. Plus, I was still staggering to wrap my head around what was going on with the strange effects my partnership with Arcee was having on our bodies and the fact I finally understood my feelings for her weren't strictly platonic. Glancing over at her as she strode, exhausted, to a nearby wall; I took in the beauty of her towering figure. Sure, Arcee was many times my size and a robot, but her body was shaped like a woman's... a quite um... well-built woman. Wait that makes her sound manly... What I mean is that she has a nice figure. Very... shapely... Even now complimenting it makes me embarrassed, but back then I found myself wondering if she could ever find me attractive or if she just saw me as a child. Of course, that line of thought really made me wish I was an adult. Even more than usual.

Miko came over, "You look like you're about to puke. Hard times?"

"I'd say so." I sighed, walking over to the rest area the bots put in for us, which was on the opposite side of the bunker from where Arcee was, "How would you feel if Bulkhead became a mad beast and then barely forgave himself for his actions?"

"Pretty bad."

I stopped after glancing at Arcee again and noticing her leaning over with both hands against the wall to support herself. She didn't seem to be in pain, but I could tell from her expression that she was even more mentally wiped out than I was. She was in all sorts of pain on the inside... but she needed space. I knew her well enough to know she wanted to be alone for a little while. Still, I was relieved when Bumblebee went over and beeped something that must have been a question about her health.

"I'll be okay, Bee. No worries. I'm just wiped out." looking in my direction she put her strong face back on and stood with a smile, "I said I'll be fine. If you keep worrying so much about me you'll make _me _worry."

"Sorry. I just thought you might be hurt... the way you were leaning-"

"I get it and I appreciate that you care so much." leaning against the wall she tried to look casual.

"Just don't push yourself okay? You're not fooling anyone. Trying to look tough so I don't worry doesn't work."

She seemed a bit shocked, then smiled, chuckling a little, "Hasn't in a while now as it? I wonder why we click so well? You always know when something's wrong and you're always there." She looked away, her expression going strangely neutral or at least unreadable, "Thanks..."

Bee walked over to Raf and beeped something, I couldn't hear his reply, but from the body language and the situation it was just idle conversation and Bee commenting on how well we got along. I butted out of that chat even though it was about me, and rubbed the bridge of my nose between my eyes.

"You okay, Jack?" Miko asked.

I glanced inconspicuously towards Arcee, who was watching me like a hawk, a mother hawk. Turning to Miko, I was honest, "Yeah. I'm just tired and been really over-thinking stuff. I think I'm just now getting unwound from that mess earlier today with MECH. I've been 'on' for too long." I chuckled.

"Yeah, I can imagine you must be bushed. I get wiped out just from being near the action. You actually end up _in_ it a lot."

"To be fair Miko, a lot of the time _you're_ the one that gets me into trouble."

"Well yeah, but when something needs doing you're always leading the way. I really respect that." she placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed, "I think that's one reason you and Arcee get along. Both of you are like Optimus' second-in-commands."

"Thanks, I guess." I said simply, plodding over to the couch and plopping down out it, "I'd hardly put myself up with Arcee in the chain of command, and I doubt Prime would either."

Arcee walked over and leaned heavily on the edge of the platform, "Actually, I think he'd put you a little higher. Not in the Autobot chain of command, but Optimus probably thinks more highly of you than any other human. You're like the Optimus for the rest of the kids."

Miko laughed, "Jackimus Prime!"

I rolled my eyes and sighed at her, "Never say that name again..."

"Yeah, let's pretend you never came up with that." Arcee agreed.

Miko just pouted.

Leaning back, I closed my eyes to 'maybe take a nap' and I could feel a large hand reach over me to grab a blanket and drape it over me. It felt nice. It wasn't rare, though she normally waited until she thought I was asleep. Maybe with everything that was going on she wanted me to know she was there taking care of me and keeping me safe.

"Thanks, Arcee."

I could almost feel her smile, "You're welcome. Rest well."

She stepped quietly away and Miko followed, bringing something up when she thought I was out of earshot, "Something's weird... I'm getting a strange vibe from you two."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm talking about that look on our face and how comfortable Jack looked after you tucked him in. I've never seen anyone snuggle up like that without having a teddy bear."

Arcee chuckled.

"What?"

"Mentioning teddy bears reminded me of Mr. Boo."

Bumblebee buzzed in protest, probably about Arcee bringing up the yellow bot's stuffed bear, which had been a gift from Raf after the 'possession' incident a while back. Sure transformers don't dream or have nightmares, but the intent made Mr. Boo a source of great comfort for Bee.

"Don't change the subject." Miko demanded, "What's the story?"

"There is no story." Arcee said firmly, "Jack means a lot to me and we've been through hell and back these last few days. Can't I be supportive? Can't he need a little comfort?"

"Of course you can. I just-"

"Do I need to bring up that incident last Christmas?"

"No." Miko moped, "I get it, I get it. I'm reading too much into it again."

"Alright. Promise me there won't be any hijinks again."

"Geez. I apologized for that didn't I?"

"Promise me."

"Alright! Alright! I won't cause any trouble. I promise no hijinks."

"What are you referring to?" Optimus was totally oblivious, but he'd obviously overheard from the med-lab.

Arcee dismissed the topic quickly, "It's nothing Optimus. I dealt with it."

Bumblebee decided to get back at Arcee for the bear remark, beeping what was probably a short retelling of the Christmas incident. It was mess in which Miko kept trying to arrange romantic events for Arcee and Optimus, not considering the fact the 'bots had no idea about many of the human customs like mistletoe and stuff like that. I'd spent most of that day trying to keep her from butting in. After all, I was pretty sure she was wrong about Arcee liking Optimus like that. I mean... I had wondered sometimes, but when Arcee caught wind of it she put the subject to rest by saying Optimus was nothing more than family to her. If anything the bond they had was semi-paternal.

Optimus laughed at the revelation, "I wondered why there were plants hanging around and assumed it was along the lines of wreathes or the Christmas tree tradition."

A report from Bulkhead broke into the scene, "This is Bulkhead, I got the pod and it's intact. No sign of 'cons either. We're clear for a bridge."

I sat up and turned just as Optimus strode over to the com terminal, "Good work Bulkhead. The way will open shortly." he opened anther channel, "Hot Rod, status report."

When the line opened, blaster fire was the first thing we heard, followed by an explosion, "Gah! This is Hot Rod. I'm a bit busy right now, Prime. Dark energon-fueled engine of destruction on my tail."

Arcee strode over quickly, "Scourge?"

"No. This one's brand new. They were already at the pod and done before I got there." an explosion rocked the ground near him, "This one scanned Starscream and Soundwave, named himself Cyclonus."

"Do you need backup?"

"No. No, I've got this. Along with a bit of information of these new 'cons. Just get me a horizontal bridge at the following coordinates on my signal."

Raf punched them in, "I've got it locked in, but that's under the surface of a lake!"

"Just do it!"

Optimus turned to Raf, "Listen to him. I'm sure he has his reasons."

Arcee nodded, "Starscream and Soundwave are aerial 'cons. Cyclonus must be too. Air forms don't handle water well, especially with light distortion throwing off the aim."

Hot Rod called out over the link, "Do it now!"

The gate opened and soon after a small tide of water rushed through, along with a transforming Hot Rod flying through the air as gravity was still catching up to his suddenly teleportation, a missile detonated on the edge of the other side of the portal, "Close it!"

Raf quickly cut the power. Arcee was quick to help Hot Rod up when the autobot finally stopped (by tumbling into a wall actually), "Are you alright?"

He nodded, "Fine. Just got winged a few times. That's not important. What's important is what I learned about these new 'cons." he gathered his wits, "They say they follow the one whose blood flows through their veins."

All the 'bots went wide-eyed. I had no idea what that meant, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Optimus turned to me, "Dark energon is said to be the blood of Unicron."

"Unicron?"

He nodded, "You could say he is the transformer equivalent of the devil. He is the devourer of life, death itself."

Arcee was suddenly angry, "Nonsense. Unicron is just idle legend, like everything else."

The 'bots all looked at her as if she'd said that most surprising thing in the world, but it was Optimus that questioned it, "What do you mean? Unicron is spoken of in the Covenant of Primus."

"In vague enigmas that could be interpreted a thousand different ways. Not to mention those prophecies were proven wrong. A chosen one to light or darkest hour and return Cybertron to its former glory? HA! Cybertron is _gone_!"

Optimus was dumbstruck, "You have always believed in the Covenant..."

"That was before our home went flying off into the vast unknowns of the universe, killing billions of innocents. One 'can only take so much, Optimus. Don't take it personally. I just don't believe in some book written eons ago."

Bee beeped a protest, Raf filled me in later, "But saying that is like saying you don't believe in the Primes!"  
>Arcee frowned, "I don't. I believe in <em>Optimus<em>. End of story. My religious beliefs are irrelevant. What matters is we have a duo of madbots _in addition_ to the one we had before. These devoted to the worship of a death god. That makes the even more dangerous than Megatron."

Bulkhead was brought in safely through the gate, pod in tow, "I heard the other one was taken, but we got most of 'em at least." Hot Rod filled the latecomer in on the relevant facts, leaving out the part about Arcee being the Autobot equivalent of an Atheist. "Great. Like we need more trouble."

Ratchet, still putting his arm back on, was for once the optimist, "At the bare minimum we have a few days or more while the decepticons sort out a power struggle. After that... well I don't know. It depends on who comes out on top."

Optimus nodded, "There is nothing we can do right now. Autobots, rest and repair. In consideration of information given to me by Ratchet, the children have permission to stay here overnight if they consult their parents first."

Miko jumped up in the air, excited, "Alright! Slumber party!"

I noticed Hot Rod eying Arcee and glanced at her myself. She didn't seem alright. Maybe admitting she'd lost her faith in their version of God was making her feel ashamed. Maybe she worried about what the others were thinking of her. I didn't know much of anything about their religion or many of their customs, so I didn't know how they treated Atheism. It was a hard topic to bring back up... it seemed like a deep wound... a new one on an already battered heart.

Next Chapter: Slumber Party!

Preview: Some downtime, Hot Rod talks with Arcee and Jack, and Miko breaks a promise, resulting in other things getting broken (including a few bottles) and old issues thought resolved being dredged up.


	8. Chapter 8: Slumber Party!

Chapter 8: Slumber Party!

"I'm not sure I get the idea behind this custom." Hot Rod tapped the side of his head in thought, "You celebrate sleeping overnight at a friend's place?"

I shook my head, "No. Like we said it's a party where you stay overnight. There's actually less sleeping than partying, and the party normally isn't all that wild."

"Oh." the 'bot still didn't seem to get the point.

"The whole point is having fun and spending time with your friends. Don't autobots have this kind of thing?"

"Sort of. There's not really sleepovers since we don't sleep, but there are parties. Normally we don't go for a full-fledged one unless we have a reason." he smiled, "I actually like the idea of a party just for the sake of it."

Arcee rolled her eyes slightly, "We do have something to celebrate Hot-Shot. You're here and we got most of the pods."

I nodded, "Yeah. Sure there's a lot to worry about too, but that's all the more reason to celebrate what we have worth celebrating."

"Well said, Jack." Optimus noted as he approached, flexing his freshly repaired hand, "There is much to be happy about."

Hot Rod nodded, "You guys are right. I shouldn't be dwelling on the bad and take pride in what we managed to get done."

Bulkhead rolled back into the base with Miko and Raf popping out of his vehicle mode, Miko holding most of the spoils of the trip, "Party supplies in the house!"

"Hm." Hot Rod cracked a smirk, "In hindsight, I should have held back on giving out those gadgets until now. Oh wait." He puled something from his 'belt' and tossed it to Bumblebee, "Here's a party favor. I don't need this anymore."

Bee activated the gadget, which extended with lightning speed into a long shaft and emitted a blade of energon. The scout buzzed in excitement. Probably something along the lines of "Awesome!"

Raf had a more detailed idea of what he'd said, "An energon sword? Don't you guys already have weapon modes for your hands?"

Bee nodded, then buzzed an explanation. Arcee translated for Miko and me, "Our on-board weapons are good, but they were mostly an adaptation to make up for losing separate weapons. They only have the barest minimum of energon cutting edges. That's a relic from the early eras of the Great War, when we still had a lot of resources. They are almost entirely energon, which cuts a lot better." she extended her arm blades, "I don't even have the ability to project an energon edge since my reformat ages ago."

Bee buzzed something and retracted the sword, offering it to Arcee.

She thought about it, "Yeah, makes sense. I'm the only one that doesn't have energon blades. It's a bit big for me though."

Ratchet was about to say something, but Hot Rod cut him off, taking the weapon and going over to the lab, "I'll adjust it."

The cut-off tech seemed mildly surprised, "You can do that? I wasn't aware you had engineering skills."

Hot Rod laughed, "Well when you spend a few centuries wandering the universe and fighting off hostiles you pick up a few tricks. Remember I said many of my crew were scientists? Well none of them had anything beyond the basic knowledge when it came to weapons. We all had to service our own gear." the bot checked the computer's database on Earth, "Come to think of it, I wonder what Earth melee designs are like. After all, they had to rely on melee weapons for far more generations than us."

Ratchet replied right away, "Fairly similar. It balances out because they were not as a whole continually at war."

"I see your point. There's a few interesting techniques here though. Have you guys tried using some of this? We could technically get a lot of benefit out of this particular sword-making style."

"You mean humans made an advancement that we didn't? Preposterous."

"Take a look. It stems from the fact they didn't have energon for weapons. They had to work with metal. This region here had to refine their materials by hand because of poor iron in the area."

Ratchet came over and read the data entry.

Miko seemed to know what they were talking about, "Oh, are you talking about katanas? I've heard about that. An ancient art of folding iron to harden it and remove impurities. The better swords took nearly a year to make with old technology but were really awesome!"

Ratchet was actually impressed, "Yes... we can technically apply this same principle to our energon weaponry. The higher the amount of energon in the weapon, the bigger the effe-"

"I get it, you can make the new weapons cut even better." Miko sighed, "That can wait. We get back with the party stuff and what do you guys do? Gear up for war! We're having a party people! Relax! Weaponry can wait!"

Hot Rod chuckled, "Kid's got a point, but let's get this one out of the way at least." he quickly made some tweaks and tossed the weapon to Arcee, "There. Your size and modded with the new energon-folding technique. Should cut through vechicons like butter, but the folding consumes more power. Only use it in short bursts."

Arcee extended the weapon and it took the form of a katana, "Its curved."

"Yeah, I made it into what they call a katana as a salute to the tech's source. Plus the curve is better for fast fighting. Haven't seen the fighting-style you use with your new body, but you probably rely on speed."

Arcee nodded, and retracted the weapon, "I think it needs a bit more tuning though. It sounds really overclocked."

"Sorry." Hot Rod apologized, "New trick, not enough skill to perfect it."

Ratchet came over and took the weapon, "I'll work on it while you people celebrate your sleeping ritual. I'm not much for joviality."'

Miko pouted, "Oh come on, Ratchet. You should have fun with us too!"

Even though I hadn't said much, I was still struck by how easily they had slipped into a talk about weaponry and war preparations. Miko continued to try and get Ratchet to join in as I was thinking about the attitude. It made sense I guessed, I was under the impression they'd been at war with the decepticons for much longer than I had been alive, and I knew for a fact that the youngest of them, Bumblebee, had been born into the war.

Arcee picked up some of the supplies from the floor and investigated them before handing them over to me and motioning for me to follow her to the rec area. "Let's get this stuff set up while these goofballs squabble."

Ratchet frowned, "I am _not_ a goofball."

Arcee ignored him and we headed on the way while the others chatted and made merry over Miko's antics. When we were away from them and at the area, she saved me the trouble of climbing the stairs by giving me a lift, literally, and asked a completely unrelated question, "You okay? You had a sour expression on."

I nodded, and was totally honest, "I'm fine. Feeling great actually. I was just surprised how easily you guys slip into talk about war. It really puts perspective on how long the war's been going on. I feel sorry for you guys."

Arcee looked away, her expression not sad or happy, "Yeah, most of us have been fighting for most of our lives. It's totally natural we'd slip a bit sometimes and think too much about it. It's not like we can't relax though. We have parties. From a human perspective it might seem like a rare event when we do."

"How long ago was your last celebration before we showed up?"

"You'd make too much of it."

"That long?"

"Like I said, differing perspectives on time. Transformers live so long we're practically immortal by human standards, a hundred years isn't that long for us. Though I have to admit, interacting with humans makes me feel a bit sluggish. If not for the hectic schedule of wartime I'd probably have trouble keeping up with the human pace. The other kids seem to have a fair amount of idle time though."

"They don't have jobs. I'm unusually busy for someone my age. Next year will be even worse, I'll be studying for college entry exams and stuff."

Arcee brightened a little, "Did you decide what you wanted to do with your life?"

"No... but I'm taking the exams anyway so the option's open. I'm not sure I should go."

"Why not?"

"Wouldn't it make your life harder? College is far away, not only that, but if you have to fight 'cons to protect me, the campus would be packed with civilians, not like Jasper."

"You shouldn't let us hold you back." Arcee frowned.

"If I go, then you'd risk exposing yourselves to the world. I can't allow that."

"The risk is worth it. You're thinking too much about what _might_ happen."

I started setting out the refreshments for the others, "I don't even know what I'd study. I thought about joining the army so I could maybe learn to be more useful."

"We went over you fighting 'cons already. Plus Optimus doesn't want humans to get involved in our fight."

"It's going to happen eventually Arcee." I brushed off the topic, "Now I'm starting to slip into war talk. I not joining anyway. That would be even more complicating than college."

"That's true."

Something occurred to me, and I felt dumb for never having thought of it, "Maybe I could study mechanics? Do you think Ratchet would mind a student?"

"Probably, but you want to be a tech?"

I turned and looked at her, "Actually I was just thinking about being an extra medic, maybe a weapons guy too. Don't you think a pair of smaller hands would be handy for repairs?"

Arcee thought about it, "You know... That's actually a great idea. You've always loved cars and bikes. We might even be able to arrange to have your living expenses paid... but every government agency in the world that found out you knew Cybertronian tech inside and out would be after you."

"Are you saying you couldn't protect me?" I teased.

She wasn't amused, "I can't just beat up every government agency that makes a bid for you. At least Fowler's people would keep the others off of you. I'm sure Prime could convince _them_ to leave you be too."

"So you're fine with it?"

"It's not my place to stop you, Jack; but yeah, I like the idea."

Hot Rod had apparently been coming over, but I hadn't noticed, "What idea?"

Arcee smiled as she replied, "Jack finally decided what he wants to do with his life. He wants to be our medic and weapons tech."

"An extra one." I corrected, "I'm not after Ratchet's job."

"Right." Arcee nodded.

Hot Rod seemed surprised, "Well now _that's_ devotion. You got yourself a great partner there, C.C."

"Yeah. He's very reliable." Arcee said, in a weird tone that was obviously mostly a jab at Hot Rod. She added a bit of uncharacteristically sassy body language to the remark and carefully grabbed some of the party supplies to hand out."

"That was a shot at me wasn't it?"

Arcee ignored him, looking at a collection of pointy party hats, "I thought these were only used for birthday parties?"

"Yeah." I joined in the ignoring, "Even then they are mainly a little kid thing. Miko was probably going to try and trick Hot Rod into wearing one."

"You shouldn't have said anything. That would have been hilarious."

Hot Rod feigned annoyance, but he was grinning, "Oh, so now I'm not even here."

Arcee twitched a little, and it seemed like she was about to make a less playful remark. There was history there. It was obvious... to me at least. I wasn't going to pry... but I got the feeling they'd once been more than just friends. I'd already suspected, but it was suddenly based on more than just a gut feeling and jealousy. Her actions and attitude clearly painted that kind of picture, though I wasn't certain.

Either way, Arcee's mood took a down-turn, but she placed the much too small hat on Hot Rod's head and attached the string to a ridge on his head so it wouldn't fall off. He didn't resist, "Wear this for the rest of the night."

"Why? Didn't you say it looks stupid?"

"It suits you."

Hot Rod cracked up, "Haha. Alright, alright. I'll wear it, but just because I respect your comedic timing." He turned partly away as if he were going to return to the others, but said one final thing in a somewhat over-dramatic tone, "Observe as I use this to become the life of the party."

Arcee rolled her eyes.

Hot Rod walked back to the others, the sight of him in the tiny hat delighting Miko, "Well, let's get this party started shall we? Miko, I wore the hat like you wanted me to."

"Hahaha, you look so silly."

"Do I? Well enjoy. If you like it then its fine."

"Sorry for planning to trick you into wearing it."

The suave 'bot smiled, "Hey, I don't mind at all. Isn't fun and hijinks the point of a party?"

Next to me, Arcee sighed and shook her head, "Great... now there's two of her. He hasn't changed as much as I thought."

I looked at her, thought about asking, then decided against it.

She spotted the action, "You can ask. I know you want to. Miko will bring it up eventually anyway. She doesn't have your tact."

"I don't want to meddle or pry where I shouldn't."

"It's fine." my partner sighed, "We used to 'date' as humans call it. I'm sure girls from every race have a dumb, trouble-making 'boyfriend' when they're young that they went out with just because he's good-looking and fun. Probably ends the same way too. We were on too different paths in life and agreed it wouldn't work. Even if _he_ doesn't think so 'that ship has sailed'."

_So she thinks he's good-looking..._, I thought to myself, but even though I didn't believe she no longer had feelings for him any more what I said was, "So you broke up when he dropped out of the academy?"

She nodded, "I was serious about serving Cybertron, he wasn't. In his defense though, this was _before_ the Great War started. He served during the war despite not graduating."

"Yeah. Optimus said something about that."

"That aside, it's just like I said would happen with Sierra. She'll see the light and dump what's his face soon enough. I was speaking from experience."

"That Sierra thing doesn't bother me anymore." I stated, then added, "And it's 'what's his name' not 'what's his face'."

"Ah."

The party got underway. With snacks for those of us that actually ate food, what Miko liked to call music, and dancing... after that 'music'. I mean... Miko had gotten a lot better over the time we'd known each other, but heavy metal isn't exactly party music, at least not for everyone else in the group. Hot Rod surprised me with revealing he'd gotten a taste for classic rock while picking up satellite radio signals from Earth satellites, though it wasn't nearly as shocking as him also liking smooth jazz. He fired up some cheesy romantic jazz for slow dancing and put the moves on Arcee at one point, and was promptly got shot down with a threat to break a part I'd later find out would cause him to constantly leak lubricant into an area that (for Hot Rod) would cause him to get splashed in the face every time he transformed. I wondered at the time why he smiled about it, but I would also learn later that to be that familiar with how he transformed meant they had "been very intimate".

Different topic, moving on. It still bothers me thinking about that. Forget I mentioned it. I shouldn't have even brought it up.

Anyway, Miko eventually changed the decent mood that was going by breaking a promise she'd mean not long before. She picked up a bottle and laid it down on the table, "Now let's play a traditional party game! Spin the-"

"No!" I shot to my feet and shot the idea down quite firmly, probably with a bit more anger and volume then I intended, "Miko, you promised not to do this."

She was stunned, her expression very much like a deer in the headlights, "I was just-"

"No, Miko. No excuses. You crossed the freakin' line here not an hour after you swore not to."

Hot Rod was in the dark, "What's wrong? Is she trying to prank us again?"

Arcee was barely less angry than me, "No, she's trying to prank me and Jack. I don't know what the 'traditional game' thing is that has Jack so upset, but I can guess the intent."

I turned to my partner, "It's a game where you spin a bottle and you have to kiss whoever the mouth of the bottle stops at."

Arcee got a lot angrier, "That's not funny Miko."

"I wasn't trying to be funny. I was just-"

"No." Arcee said, quite like I had moments earlier, but she reached over and overturned the table hard enough to break all the bottles sitting on top of it, "I don't want to hear it. Doing that kind of thing. Bad enough trying to get me to kiss Jack, but that kind of a trick with a random element? You..." she glanced very briefly at Hot Rod before looking back at Miko and biting back something that was probably really scathing. "Just... no."

Arcee marched off, Hot Rod calling after her, "Arcee..."

"Shut up, Hot-Shot." if the doors of the base weren't all automatic sliding blast shields, I'm sure she would have slammed one as she stormed out.

Miko was nearly in tears, "I didn't think she'd be that mad... what'd I do? I don't get why-"

I tried not to glare at her, "Aside from breaking the promise you made and maybe making things awkward between us, it was a random game. If we played she could have ended up kissing anyone."

"So? It's just a game. It doesn't mean anything."

Hot Rod started to explain, but I cut him off, much to his shock, "Arcee and Hot Rod used to date, Miko."

He stared at me... as if it was completely beyond his comprehension that she'd tell me about it.

Miko however recoiled, "Oh god... I stepped on a landmine there didn't I? I'm sorry Hot Rod."

"It's fine." he shrugged, but eyed me a bit before walking away, taking the silly hat off. I'd gotten that look before. From Sierra's jealous jock boyfriend.

Miko nearly whimpered, "I should apologize to Arcee too, but what do I say? She was really mad!"

Bulkhead reached out a gentle, but massive hand in comfort, "Just give her some time to cool off. You couldn't have known. I could try to let her know your sorry and you want to apologize. It might smooth things over enough."

"I-" I hesitated slightly in my offer, not entirely certain how to handle the situation.

Hot Rod, with an expression on the line between annoyance and frustration, headed _me_ off, "It's _our_ problem, I'll do it. I need to talk to her anyway."

I wanted to argue, wanted to get in the way and keep him away from her so he couldn't possibly get back together with her, but I had no idea what I could do. I just watched while he left the room to follow her.

Bumblebee buzzed something in disappointment. To which Optimus replied, "Yes, Bumblebee, I do believe the party is over."

Glaring one last time at Miko, I finally went after Arcee.

Next Chapter: Wounds

Preview: A bit more back-story for Arcee and Hot Rod, old wounds are addressed, and a rift is created.

Bonus Preview: Chapter 10 will be called Shattered Glass, make of that what you will. It will also be a huge turning point in the story. You could say we are 'getting to the good part', so if you like what's been here so far, Chapter 10 and 11 will rock your freakin' world. Look forward to it.

On another note, please give a bit more feedback in your reviews. I appreciate you saying you are looking forward to what's coming, but that's not much of a review. I'd like you're opinions! What do you like? What do you not like? What do you want more of? It doesn't have to be that detailed or even answer every one of those example questions, just any actual feedback at all would be appreciated. Even just a single sentence saying what you liked most about the chapter would do.


	9. Chapter 9: Wounds

Chapter 9: Wounds

"Arcee." a voice I didn't want to hear came from below me as I looked out on the desert from my perch atop a ridge. It was Hot Rod.

I sighed, "How did you know where I went?"

The 'bot motioned back at the base, which was still well within sight. I was technically hidden from view from the base, but could easily lean to see it. "I just looked for the closest high place. You used to love high places."

Leaning back against the rock face, I looked up at the moon, "That outburst had nothing to do with you. She broke a promise and tried to make things more complicated for me and Jack."

"She didn't mean anything by it. The poor thing's nearly crying because she thinks she hurt your feelings."

"I know she didn't mean any harm, but I'm still mad."

"So mad she's afraid to approach you to apologize."

I sighed, "I guess I should apologize too then... I was too harsh."

Hot Rod looked away, unsure of whether or not he should press any further, after a few moments he decided on something to say, "If my being here is going to be a problem..." his words hanged there in the air, the rest of the sentiment conveyed.

Again, I sighed, "Hot-Shot, I'm tired of angst. I've done enough of it over the past months, hell that past few days, to last me a lifetime. So I'll be honest with you. Alright?

"Shoot... metaphorically I mean. Please don't actually shoot me."

Rolling my eyes, I resumed staring at the moon as I got everything out in the open, "You don't have to leave. Seeing you again brought back a lot of old feelings I thought were long gone." I looked at my 'ex' who had a pained expression on his face that I couldn't read, "Don't get me wrong. I don't want to get back together or anything. We're too different."

"I'm not the same 'bot I was back then."

"I noticed." I replied, looking away again, "Neither am I. There's a saying on Earth that goes 'that ship has sailed'. Basically it means..."

"Whatever possibility of a relationship there was ended when I chose freedom over you."

That hurt a bit in the spark chamber... thinking about the breakup... It wasn't a bad breakup or anything, but it wasn't as clean as I made it out to be, "Yeah."

Glancing at Hot Rod, I saw him wrestling with himself, as if he wanted to say something, perhaps argue against what I'd said, but wasn't sure if he should. Eventually, after several long seconds, he caved in and spoke, "It wasn't like that... I mean. I wanted you to come with me, but you picked your career."

"You know what being in the army meant to me."

"Yeah, I don't blame you for picking your dreams over me. I was young and an idiot. Just don't act like it is me that ended things. It was you. You're the one that turned my dropping out into a deal breaker. We could have made it work. I wanted to make it work."

"You didn't make the same case back then."

Hot Rod turned and leaned on the cliff beneath me, "I was a young idiot remember? I thought you wanted to end things. You did make a good point about 'different paths in life'."

"I wanted you to fight it a bit. I thought maybe you'd stay, or maybe refuse to end it and admit how serious you were."

The 'bot shook his head in annoyance, "That doesn't even make any sense! Why would you act like you wanted to break up to increase the commitment?"

"It really doesn't make any sense does it?" I had to admit.

"Then why do it?"

"I was young and stupid."

There was nothing but silence for a time, then Hot Rod finally said something, "So let's just agree we were both stupid. I will admit... it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. You were right. Back then we were on completely different paths."

I looked at him, "Being on the same path now doesn't change anything. We're still..."

"Too different." I looked down and frowned, and I could tell he wanted to argue, but just like that time so long ago he didn't. Instead, he looked to me and changed subjects ever so slightly, "You are a lot different, C.C. I heard about the reformatting and I can see the big change... but what happened? You're... I don't know... it like you've been through the wringer far too many times. I know you well enough to see all the wounds you've got inside."

I looked to the moon again, "I've lost a lot of people I cared a lot about. Tailgate... Cliffjumper... Bee got badly hurt once before Cliff died and I couldn't help him. Not even two days ago Jack had to kill someone for the first time because I got captured."

A light bulb went off in his head and he frowned, "So that's what I was picking up off him. I should've recognized that pained vibe. Are you okay? Not just with that, with everything. It's a stupid question I know but-"

"It's fine Hot-Shot..." I looked wistfully at nothing across the desert, "You don't have to worry about that. My partner has my back."

I wasn't looking at him, but I can imagine the expression he took on, "How deep does that partnership go exactly."

I turned quickly and glared mildly at him, "Not you too! It's bad enough that Miko thinks I'm boy-crazy."

"Sorry... I can't help that I'm a little jealous."

I sighed, "Jack's a human. He needs physical affection, something a 'bot could never give him."

The 'bot gave me a perplexed look, "You're only talking about how he could never like you... Do you..."

"No!" I protested firmly, "How many times do I have to spell it out? He's the most important person in the world to me, sure. I admit that. I admit that if he died it would break my psyche into a millions of tiny pieces, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with him."

Hot Rod put his hands up in apology, "Sorry. Like I said I was just a little jealous of how clos-"

"Leave me alone for a while. Alright Hot-Shot? I'm pissed off again."

"I'm sorry, I-"

"Now." I said, firmly, with more annoyance that fury.

He nodded and headed back to the base. Two steps later and he stumbled, "Jack! Don't wander around in the dark like that I nearly stepped on you."

I adjusted my optics to see better in the darkness and noticed Jack was standing close by near the rock cliff that Hot Rod and I were talking at. He apologized to the 'bot and Hot Rod simply moved on.

I didn't look my partner in the eye, "How long were you there?"

"Pretty much the whole time. Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

I sighed, "Most of that wasn't any of your business."

"I know, but I was just coming out to chec-"

I stood, back to him, cutting he words off. I wasn't really in any state of mind to be around him. Everyone prodding at an issue between us that I'd tried to snuff out left a tugging feeling in my spark at the very sight of Jack. I couldn't help but picture a scene with me admitting my feelings to him, and him and his face contorting in repulsion. Just imaging it hurt more than you can probably imagine. Everyone trying to invoke that scene just... it hurt.

"Arcee?"

"Not now, Jack." I transformed into my vehicle mode and jumping of the ledge, riding off into the desert with no particular destination. I just drove, part of me wishing I could drive into eternity and hide from the truth behind the lie I had told Hot Rod.

I probably left him confused, I probably hurt his feelings. I just couldn't face him though. Not until I got my head on straight again. My mindset was all screwed up at the moment and I desperately needed to get back to a place where I could just be his friend again. I was tearing myself apart inside for many different, but related reasons: because I was letting myself be overcome by the angst I was so tired of; because I was having those selfish feelings for my partner again; because I couldn't just act on them; because I felt like I was acting weak and girly when that isn't like me; because Jack was so young; because I found myself not caring about his age as much as I should; and finally, because I lost track of time and where I was going and found myself with no idea where I was and in the middle of nowhere.

I'd been confused for a long time about what exactly the bond I had with Jack was. At first I was clueless as to why I didn't want to part ways. It turned into kind of a big sister kind of thing for a bit. Then when I face losing him to Airachnid that first time I wondered if I loved him, but still wasn't sure. It wasn't until I was dying on that table in the MECH labs that I realized that my thoughts were only o Jack and how desperately I wanted to see him again. In what seemed like my last moments the only reason in my heart for not wanting to die was Jack. When I came back from the brink and found him looking dead at Airachnid's feet my real feelings were confirmed. He wasn't just a partner... Jack was apart of me. I'd never even bought into that whole stigma of needing a spark-mate to be complete, but I understand it now. It's about being more complete. Finding that person that fill in your weak points and makes it feel like they don't matter at all.

It was a feeling I believed I could never act on.

Reverting to my robot mode, I went to my knees and vented all my compounded frustrations through my fist and into the sandy ground. Several times actually. I didn't even notice my early warning systems had been going off for a while until headlights illuminated the area.

"How long has..." I wondered to myself, struggling to adjust my optics to see who it was. The signal was 'con, but that could just as easily mean it was a MECH unit.

The voice cleared things up, "Hey there, Babe. Goin' my way?"

"Knockout." I glared at the 'con as he cut his lights and shifted into robot mode.

"Glad the name sticks in your mind. Want a few more things to remember me by?" his hand became a gun.

More headlights from the other side of me, probably Breakdown. The two of them were practically joined at the hip. Ignoring that, I slammed both my fists into the sand in annoyance and yelled, "I am NOT in the mood!"

I hit vehicle mode in a flash and revved hard, kicking up enough dust behind me to blind Breakdown in the brief instant before I launched myself at Knockout.

* * *

><p>Jack's Perspective.<p>

I was in knots until Arcee came walked into the base, badly battered and covered in sand. She seemed a lot more relaxed though as she chucked a limb at one of the bins used for salvage. It missed though. Bouncing off a random piece of equipment and breaking it.

Ratchet protested, "I NEEDED THAT!"

Arcee smiled, "Exactly what I was about to say, Ratchet."

"What in the AllSpark happened to you?" he picked up the stray arm, "Isn't this Knockout's?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I ran into him and his running buddy while I was blowing off steam." her smiled became a smirk, "They helped."

"Clearly." the medic quipped, "How badly are you wounded?"

She shrugged, "I'll be okay. Just a hell of a lot of minor stuff I think. I'm surprised I won actually."

Bumblebee, who'd been observing, buzzed something that I later learned was, "Like they say 'The Pit has nothing on the fury of a fembot'."

"Maybe I should lose my temper more often." Arcee joked back.

Miko promptly hid behind the couch, to late to escape Arcee's notice, as the fembot strolled over right away and talked directly to her, "Sorry I blew up on you like that, Miko. You just touched a nerve."

Relief became regret as soon as the emotion crossed Miko's face, "No, _I _should apologize. I was out of line. I swear it won't happen again." she showed both her hands, "No fingers crossed this time."

Arcee nodded, "Good. Then that's settled." Looking over at me, "Sorry about earlier, Jack. I was in a strange mood. Are we okay?"

"Of course."

She smiled, then walked over to the medlab to get her wounds treated. Her physical ones at least. I was worried about her for obvious reason, but she seemed fine. Beating on 'cons had always been great stress relief after all. She even brought up my decision to become a med and armory tech and got into an argument with Ratchet over it for my sake, not dropping it until he agreed to teach me. Ratchet tried getting Optimus to back him up, but the prime actually thought it was a great idea for me to be a medic, and was even willing to trust me with weapons tech knowledge. His trust in me still means a lot to me.

The night ended with the typical content mood, but there was something in the air that I couldn't identify. It was like something was brewing. The calm before the storm. Beyond the stuff with the new 'cons and what they could do. I didn't know what it was and made the mistake of ignoring my instincts. What ended up happening would shatter our lives as we knew them.

Next Chapter: Shattered Glass.

Preview: Things get broken, things explode, major plot twists abound, and SYMBOLISM! Delicious, delicious symbolism!

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but it just ended up not being the usual length. I meant to include a flashback, and originally had the battle with the deadly duo in the chapter, but it just didn't flow as well.


	10. Chapter 10: Shattered Glass

Chapter 10: Shattered Glass

"Though often regarded simply as children's stories meant to teach youths sound morals, fables are often quite sound from a literary and storytelling standpoint." Professor Riker moved on in his lecture, making good points but none that high school students would really care about. Even I was only half-listening. The poor guy should have applied for a university position or something, he belonged in some more specialized course, not a mere eleventh grade English class, "Though the quality of the tale varies by the teller, the depth of the concepts themselves are universal. Often these stories deal with our innate flaws as human beings. Be they greed, lust, impatience, cowardice... each of these traits are negative points that we can all relate to."

I tried not to yawn, I really did. I mean it was interesting I guess, but just not to me, At least not after an all-niter working on the subtle mechanics of an energon shift-pulse regulator coil. Even the name was bothersome.

"For instance, the well-known story of King Midas, a miser who's desire for more gold led to him wishing for everything he touched to turn to gold. Such a tale has many depths that could be fleshed out by a writer. Perhaps Midas' greed and request stemmed from a desire to improve the world around him, but became twisted to something negative after some event. After all, psychologically speaking, why would he ask for the power to make things into something he was crazy about, by his own hand, rather than just wish for endless gold? Thinking of the reasons behind actions and the motivations of characters can lead to a greater appreciation for even the simplest tales and improve your own writing."

The bell rang just as I was running through the many failings I'd gone through the night before when trying to rebuild the complex coil mechanism that was vital to the autobot transformation process. Like a lot of my fellow students I was already getting up when the professor dismissed the class.

"Remember, due to the staff meeting today is only a half day. Those of you waiting for a ride should report to your home room until it arrives. Also, don't forget the essay that is due on Monday. Class dismissed."

I flexed my muscles slightly to get the stiffness out and turned to head out. I was looking forward to some extra time with Arcee, even if I was pretty much going to be spending it studying anyway. My trip was stalled a bit by a little thing I'd been doing a lot less of lately called human interaction.

Hugging her books to her chest, Sierra had fallen into step beside me as I moved from the class into the hallway, "So, are you done with your essay yet? I know you were having a hard time deciding what you wanted to do after graduating."

"Yeah," I went with a partial truth, "I'm actually going to an engineering school. Gonna work on the real high-tech stuff."

She smiled, "Suits you. You've liked cars and stuff like that for a while now."

I nodded, "You done?"

"Yep. I'm going to be a vet. Your probably not too shocked to here that though."

"Didn't you get a job at the zoo because you like animals?"

Sierra nodded, "I'm just a ticket girl, but sometimes the vets let me help out. I really love it. Even though it's hard when the animals are actually sick. It hurts to see them in pain."

Sierra's caring nature was one of the things I'd liked about her. Well, still like about her actually, but in a friend kind of way. When she started going out with Mark she used the old 'Let's be friends' line on me and it (for once in the history of civilization) actually happened. It helped that I was only a little broken up about it. Turned out what I had once felt for her was nothing more than a crush. Not that Mark believed me when I said I wasn't interested in her anymore.

Speaking of which, "Oh hey, Darby. I see you're walking with my girlfriend again."

Sierra sighed, "I'm getting sick of your jealousy, Mark. Maybe I should actually cheat on you since you refuse to believe I'm not."

I stepped away from her, "I've seen this movie. Don't get any ideas about kissing me to spite him. I'm not cool with that."

Sierra rolled her eyes, "I'm not like that. Mark, just get over your trust issues or call it quits. I'm sick of arguing."

Mark glared at me.

Sierra spotted it and glared at him in response, "And stop glaring at Jack, I'm the one that said that, not him." Walking by her angry boyfriend, she shook her head in annoyance, "Boys... You know I should have gone after a college guy or something. Maybe he'd be more mature."

Now that I think about it, I never got around to telling Arcee that she called it right. Not that it really matters anymore.

Mark called out to her, "Sierra! Come on, Baby, don't be like that. I'm sorry."

Sierra turned and shot back, "What are you from the '90s now?"

"Hey, don't forget I'm your ride home!"

"Welcome to the age of cellphones." she spat back with extra sass, "I can get another."

I grinned as she whipped back around and walked away.

Mark wasn't as amused and he didn't hesitate in letting me know, "This is your fault, Darby."

"No, I'm pretty sure it's yours."

"Oh now you think you're clever."

I stepped up, "More than you at least. Care to prove me right by punching me again in the middle of a hallway with faculty everywhere? I'm sure Sierra will just _love_ you getting in trouble for doing the thing that pissed her off to begin with."

He almost snarled at me as he realized I'd called him out on what he was going to do, "Oh, that just means I've got to hit you smarter, and when it goes down I gotta make it worth it."

"You know, you're not half as intimidating as you think you are."

"Oh, I'm every bit as intimidating as I think I am. You just don't know it yet."

I laughed, turned to walk away, "I have to admit that was a half decent comeback. I'd stay and trade barbs some more but I have better things to waste my time on."

"Oh, that's just more more strike Darby." he growled, "I mean that both ways."

There was one thing you could say about Prof. Riker's class, it did elevate the wordplay of the idiot bullies a bit. Elevated to actually existing I mean. It still needed some polish though.

I left the moron behind and headed to the parking lot. It was a month after the incident with the pods and the small disaster at the party. There was little sign of the decepticons hatching any major plots and aside from the occasional raid on an energon deposit, we didn't really see them. Ratchet, and many of us, assumed they were still sorting out their new recruits' issues with authority. Hot Rod and Arcee were on speaking terms but their was a lot of awkwardness there. So much in fact that Hot Rod spent most of his time out of patrol. Arcee brushed it off as just him being his usual independent self and Optimus just let him do whatever he wanted, same as the others. All the other bot's were doing the usual stuff. Miko was... well Miko. Raf and I were both learning Cybertronian tech in more detail, though he was learning faster... and not even specializing like I was. He's a genius though, so it only bugs me a little that I was so outclassed. All in all though, things were pretty normal.

Just like normal, Arcee was relaxing in vehicle mode in the parking lot. I hopped on and waved goodbye to Sierra, who was leaning against a lamppost a dozen spaces down. I assumed she was waiting for Mark to apologize, again, and rode away. The feel of a bike between me and the road making me feel at ease, even ignoring the fact that the bike was technically the woman I loved.

"Good day for a drive." I smiled, taking a turn with practiced precision, "I feel sorry for those teachers holed up inside on a day like this, but I appreciate them letting us enjoy it."

Arcee would've nodded if she had a head at the moment, "Yeah. Though I still don't get why they don't hold these meetings on weekends."

I shrugged, "They already have to spend their free time grading papers, why should they have to spend it on staff meetings?"

"Ah, good point." she conceded, "You want to hit the roads for a while or just head to base?"

"It's a half-day off so let's spend half of it goofing off." I grinned.

"Sounds good to me." pushed the side panels of her transformation slightly against my legs, she took over her controls and revved up, popping a wheelie as we made for our favorite driving spot, I can almost see the the mischievous grin she would have had on her face, "Hang on."

"Whoa! Slow down, I'll get another ticket!"

* * *

><p>When we walked into the based about an hour later, I was glaring at a certain slip of paper. I waved it at Arcee in annoyance, "You're paying this one you know. This time it was all you."<p>

She took it with the grin I mentioned earlier, which was still on her face, "I'll just get Fowler to take it off your record. Like he did with that license fiasco."

She was talking about the time I'd been pulled over and didn't actually have a motorcycle license yet. That had been annoying, "Hopefully. Three of these and I'll lose that license. What's got into you today?"

"I'm just in a good mood." she shrugged, "What? You didn't have a good time?"

"I'm not saying that..." I looked away, suddenly embarrassed by her talking to me in such a teasing tone, "You're just normally more careful."

"And I plan to continue that trend. Today was a special occasion."

I raised an eyebrow at her, then gave in, "Yeah, we don't get extra free time all the time. I've been really busy lately."

"Speaking of which," she smiled and motioned to the lad area, "Back to work, soldier."

"Doctor technically." I countered, and strode across to my workstation. Arcee headed over to do some maintenance on the security systems on the other side of the base. She'd been complaining about them acting up, and those systems were her specialty.

It wasn't long before Hot Rod came stepping out from the depths of the base, pushing one of the stasis pods along in front of him. I noticed the other ones we'd recovered we already in the corner that was reserved for things that needed repairs. Arcee stopped him, "What are you doing with that?"

Hot Rod pointed to the other pods, "Time for maintenance. We might not be planning on risking the spawning process but the 'forms still need to be preserved."

"Yeah. Go ahead then." Arcee let him by, "I'm surprised you're not running around on your little 'patrols'."

Putting the pod in place, he turned, "Actually I was just doing some chores while waiting for you."

"Oh?"

Hot Rod sighed, at her skeptical expression, "Look, we've been really awkward for weeks know and I found this great spot near one of those energon caches I think you'll really like."

"I'm not going out on a date with you, Hot-Shot."

He shook his head, "No, not a date. That ship sailed, I know. I just want to get away for a little while, spend some time together as friends, maybe patch things up."

Arcee thought about it, "Fine. I don't want to spent the rest of my life on this planet with the two of us walking on eggshells. Just as friends though."

I was immediately concerned, but decided to not act like Mark. Heck she wasn't even my girlfriend really.

Hot Rod's intentions were still an uncertainty though, "Great. We can get there with a quick trip through the groundbridge." he headed over to Ratchet and gingerly reached for the console controls, "Can I burrow your bridge for a second."

The tech stepped away, "Fine, just make it fast. I'm using that panel for other things."

"Right." fiddling with the controls, the screens blanked for an instant. "Crap, I hit the wrong button. I can fix it. No data loss."

"There better not be." Ratchet glared.

Arcee rolled her eyes, "Real smooth, Hot-Shot."

Hot Rod quickly fixed his mistake and opened a bridge, motioning for Arcee to follow him. I was tempted to crash the party, but again decided not to be a jerk. In hindsight, things might have ended up a lot differently if I'd just been a little more of a asshole that _one_ time.

Instead of that, I went back to work pouring over my notes from Ratchet's last lesson and tried to get the device I'd been working on to actually do something. I was only at it for a few minutes before Ratchet grumbled something that broke my focus.

"What in the AllSpark?" he checked the information, "What is a groundbridge doing there?"

I headed, "Something wrong with the groundbridge?"

He shook his head, "This isn't ours..., but how..."

Raf, who'd been tucked away in his own station, looked over the readings, "Why is there a groundbridge in the training room?"

Ratchet tried to pull up security data but couldn't, "I don't know. Something's wrong."

I went wide-eyed... realizing what it had to mean, "Decepticons..."

Ratchet looked to the two of us, "Stay here and contact Arcee and Hot Rod, get them back now." opening his com he called for the others and went into action, "Autobots, we have a breach! Security is down, I'm heading to cut them off before they get out of the training room. I repeat, the training room has been breached, this is not a drill!"

Raf quickly worked on the console, but the bridge didn't open, "I can't lock in the last coordinates.

"No... it can't be..." I gawked in the bridge in disbelief, "Can you contact them on the long range com?"

Raf pressed a few buttons. "No. It won't go through."

"Dammit!" Having realized the truth, I gritted my teeth in anger and slammed my fist down on a nearby railing. "DAMMIT!"

* * *

><p>Arcee's Perspective, a few minutes earlier.<p>

I looked around at the dense foliage of the forest as the groundbridge closed behind us. I could see what looked like a cliff with a great view in the distance. I kicked myself a little for even agreeing to come with him. It was obvious that this trip wasn't entirely platonic in his case, and I went knowing that. It was just just my own dumb self trying to forget things and distance myself romantically from Jack. Of course we'd not done anything remotely romantic, not that anything of the sort was possible... but I still wanting to put walls up there. As stupid and nonsensical as it was. Honestly, I wasn't sure what I wanted and the briefest thought in the general direction of the issue made me go all kinds of stupid.

I noticed Hot Rod hesitating to follow me forward and looked back. The 'bot had a strange look on his face that I couldn't read at the time, "Come on. You wanted to show me this place right?"

He snapped out of whatever it was and smiled, "Yeah. It's just ahead. You'll love it."

He took the lead and we walked a short distance to a ledge that would have been a small cliff for a human. To 'bots it was more of a tall embankment, something you could vault if you were reasonably agile. That didn't affect the beauty of the landscape though, as the cliff was over a big lake that looked untouched by man, a majestic view of the mountains in he distance. The whole area was lush with greenery and there was even a clearing full of flowers on the other side of the lake with butterflies and everything. It was...

"Beautiful..."

"Yeah." Hot Rod said wistfully, and I didn't notice him looking at me as he said it despite how overwhelmingly cliché the act was.

Instead I was thinking about how much better it would be if I was with the very person I was trying to avoid thinking romantically about. I couldn't help but fret about it and my face turned to a frown. Hot Rod noticed of course and grabbed something he'd stashed ahead of time. Two handmade fishing poles.

I raised an eyebrow, "I never pegged you as the type to like fishing."

I smirked, "Hey, I admit to being a bit impatient, but that's exactly why I like it. It's kind of like training. Waiting and waiting for that moment of exhilaration when you reel in a catch, then needing just the right technique to avoid snapping the line. It's great."

"Putting it that way it actually sounds exactly like your kind of thing." I grabbed the offered rod. "I spend most of my time in the desert though, so I've never done this." I looked around, "Where are we anyway?"

"Around a hundred miles northeast of Toronto, about as far away from base as we can get and still be in North America."

He showed me how to bait the line, using a small fish as opposed to the normal worms for obvious reasons related to the size of his hands. I might have been able to bait a hook with worms, but there was no way he would be able to. It got me thinking about Jack again, and how he could help me use proper bait.

I shook my head, unsure of what had gotten into me so suddenly or what my rising unease was, "Does every part of this have to be tricky?"

Hot Rod laughed, "Yeah, this is the hard part. Oh, and you have to be careful not to cast the line clear over the lake. I did that my first time. Caught a squirrel."

"Haha, the poor thing."

Turning to the lake, I held the rod, expected him to show me how by demonstrating, instead he placed his hands on me, trying to guide my arms though the motions. I wasn't having any of that, "Boundaries, Hot-Shot. You said this trip was just friends."

"Sorry. I'll be good."

I turned back to the lake and got ready, "Show me by doing, not by groping."

"Yeah, you hold the rod in-"

Suddenly my com sprang to life, Ratchet sounded relieved and a bit frantic, "There, I cracked it. What in the AllSpark is going on with the console?"

"Dammit." Hot Rod stamped one foot. I assumed because the day was ruined.

I opened a link, but was stopped before saying something by the sound of a laser blast and a small explosion and a pained cry, "Ratchet, what was that? Is the base under attack?" Dead air, "Ratchet?" Nothing, "JACK?"  
>Hot Rod went wide-eyed, "The kids are there? Dammit! Aren't they supposed to be in school?"<p>

"That's beside the point! The base is under-"

"Arcee." Ratchet struggling, cut me off, "The bridge... get the chil-"

I could hear him collapse as the groundbridge opened, "RATCHET!"

I hustled through the bridge, expecting to come under fire the instant I was through. I didn't notice Hot Rod reach out to stop me and miss. When I got through the place was full of blasted debris and broken vehicons. Bumblebee was unconscious under a pile of stones and 'con parts and Raf was in the wreckage trying to wake him up. Ratchet was out on the only slightly damaged console. From his wounds it looked like he'd taken some shots protecting it so we could get in and out. The scene looked like the end of the world... and it was.

Starscream walked into view, a missile pod aimed at me, but a voice waved him of, Megatron's. I looked over towards the blast doors the lead deeper into the base and spotted him, a very eager to pay me back Knockout and Breakdown, and enough vehicons to say I'd need to swim through their energon to get to Megatron after killing them all. It was hopeless... I was as good as dead... which meant... everyone else I couldn't locate probably was. Prime, Bulkhead, Miko..., Jack...

No... I had to believe in them, "What did you do with Optimus and the others you piece of scraplet scuzz!"

"Language, young lady." Megatron gloated, "You comrades are in the same condition as the ones you see here."

_So not dead. Good. _I noted to myself. _Nice of him to underestimate us, but Jack and Miko are not in here... I have to think of something. I can't leave them here._

Suddenly I spotted Jack hiding behind one of the stasis pods. He was trying to get one of MECH's guns to work. Naturally I stepped slowly, and sideways towards him, trying to get to him without drawing attention to what I was moving to, "You'll pay for this, Megatron... if it means I bleed even last drop of energon from my body I swear you'll pay!"

The madman sighed, "Did I give you permission to try and save one of them, Autobot?"

_What? _I froze, my vision shooting over to Hot Rod, who looked from Megatron to me.

His expression turned... and not to the one he should have. It was the look of someone that knew they'd been caught and a was trying desperately to make an excuse. "Arcee, I-"

"No... Hot-Shot. You're a lot of things but you're not a traitor. It can't be true..."

"C.C.-" he wasn't denying it... he was about to try and explain why he'd done it! He was going to make excuses for himself! The truth was all over his face!

"You don't get to call me that anymore!" I yelled, "Decepticon!"

"I didn't have a choice!" he pleaded.

"How long?"

He couldn't even look me in the eye anymore, "They captured me before I even contacted you."

"And you just turned under the pressure?"

"It's not like that! I said I didn't have a choice." he stepped forward, "I tried to avoid it, the I couldn't anymore, so I tried to make sure you and the little ones didn't get involved."

"You think I'd want to be safe when my family was getting butchered? You think I'd ever forgive you?"

"You were never supposed to know what I had to do..."

Megatron was enjoying the shoe, but interrupted, "Enough of this. I have things to do. Kill her quickly and let us be off."

Hot Rod looked at him, pleadingly, "Please, Megatron-" suddenly he buckled a little, his optic dimming as he cried out in agony and nearly fell over, "GYAAAGGHHH!"

"Remember our... arrangement."

I backed up, trying to shield Jack, blocking him but doing anything by using my foot, "Hot Rod... you... don't do this."

He straightened himself slowly and turned his hand into a gun, leveling it at me with only a small room's worth of distance between us. It would be nearly impossible to dodge it, "I"m sorry. I have to. I can only defy a direct order one time. The second defiance will kill me."

Megatron pointed at me and commanded the traitor, "Kill her NOW!"

Hot Rod fired and time seemed to slow to a crawl. I didn't even dodge I was so stunned that he'd taken the shot, and watched as it missed me completely... somehow. I followed the shot as it collided with the stasis pod that Jack was hiding beside and saw it destabilize.

Megatron roared at him in anger, "You fool! This whole place will be obliterated!"

The 'con dove at Hot Rod, dragging him by the throat through the still open groundbridge, commanding his minions to follow. Most of them were right by it and already fleeing. At the same time I was transforming to vehicle mode, shouting for Jack to hop on. I had to get him away from the blast... I couldn't save the others... but I'd be damned if he and I were going to die as well.

But I was only half-way transformed when the pod detonated and everything went white. I felt a shock wave strike my entire form from behind, knocking me back into robot mode as I lost consciousness.

We were all dead... I was certain of it at the time. After all, 'atheists' don't believe in miracles.

Next Chapter: find out when it comes out

Preview: A miracle?

A/N: OMG PLOT TWIST! The title "Shattered Glass" is a reference to a comic and toyline for Transformers based on the concept of an alternate dimension where the Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good. It that, Hot Rod (or rather "Rodimus") is the equivalent of Starscream and is constantly plotting to kill Optimus.


	11. Chapter 11: Transcendence

A/N: Fair warning, this chapter is a little hard to follow at times due to what's going on. The beginning is actually mildly trippy. I recommend reading until you figure out what's going on, then rereading so everything's more comprehensible. I'd give a tip to help during a straight read-through, but that might just make it more confusing if you don't know what's actually happening. Also, there's some mature content in this chapter. Gets kinda intense but not explicit.

Chapter 11: Transcendence

_Ugh... can't see anything... are my optics fried?_

_ Wait... optics? Get a grip... think..._

_ I don't have any time to waste... I have to find Jack._

_ No... that's not right... that makes no sense..._

_ Of course it does... Jack was right next to..._

_ Arcee was right next to..._

_ I've got to focus... got to find... Jack..._

_ Arcee..._

_ Jack?_

I got the feeling that I was lost somewhere, even though I knew where I was. I was at the base... Hot Rod betrayed us... he become a decepticon.

_How could he do that? After all we've been through together. I thought he loved me._

_ He didn't have a choice from the look of it._

_ There's always a choice!_

I hurt so bad... felt like my heart was being ripped out... why did it hurt so much that he'd betrayed us? I never even lik-

_Heart? I don't have a heart... I mean spa-_

_ Why would I mean spark? I'm-_

_ UGH! WHAT IS THIS? I CAN'T THINK!_

_ Arcee?_

I looked around, certain that I'd heard a voice, a confused voice. Jack's voice... but I couldn't stop thinking that I'd said something... that I was the one...

_Where are you?_

There he was again, I was asking... I mean _he_ was asking for me... feeling helpless. I wanted to help her she seemed so... I mean he seemed so...

_JACK! Jack... where are you? Please! I... I don't want to lose anyone else! Please... please be alive! I can't find you._

Clutching my head I tried to focus. I HAD to get my head on straight, Arcee sounded so terrified and confused. I could feel it in every fiber of my soul. If I couldn't think straight I wouldn't be able to help her. My fear for her, my fear for myself, my fear of being useless... all swarming in my head mounted an assault on my sanity and threatened to become abject terror.

_Jack... Jack's so afraid... for me... afraid that he can't do anything... how can I feel..._

_ Oh course I can feel it... why can I feel what sh..._

_ I can't think... I can't think! I can't save-_

_ Her. I'm useless..._

_ I'm going to die alone... failing him..._

_ Arcee! IF YOU'RE THERE HELP ME FIND YOU! I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU!_

_ So afraid... I'm so... no that doesn't matter... HE'S afraid... I can't fail him... I WON'T FAIL HIM! I WON'T LOSE HIM! NOT HIM! NOT JACK!_

I threw aside some rumble that had been pinning me down, but was too disoriented to notice that I hadn't actually been aware of it moments before or that the large piece of machinery seemed far lighter than it should have been. I could see again, but my optics were still adjusting. It wass if I was seeing the world for the first time. Climbing out from the light covering of debris I stumbled, my footing uncertain, and fell over like a newborn protoform fresh from the AllSpark. None of my servos felt right... I hadn't had that sensation since I was first reformatted to a smaller model.

I couldn't stop to think about that though. It felt like if I thought about anything other than finding Jack I'd fall unconscious and into delirium again. I just had to find...

...Arcee. She was all that mattered. It wasn't like I could help the others, I was only...

...one 'bot. No... I could help them... I'm sure I could, but Jack came first. He could give first aid to Ratchet, get him up and running and then we could work from there. Besides... it was...

…Arcee. She was the most important...

…thing it the world to me. I had to find him. I could feel him desperately digging through rubble trying to find me, just like I was. Wait...

… how could...

Suddenly I heard a coughing noise, Raf, and a beeping from Bumblebee reassuring the boy that he was still alive somehow. I rushed over and threw the debris pinning him down, "Bee, you have to help me find... Arcee."

The 'bot looked at me strangely, and shook his head as if trying to clear it.

I corrected myself, "I mean Jack. Something's wrong..." I stumbled, "She's so scared... I have to find Jack."

Stumbling on unfamiliar legs, I staggered into Bumblebee as he stood to help me regain my own footing. For a moment, before I lost consciousness again, I wondered why he was so much shorter than before.

Back in the darkness, I felt... alone. Very, very alone. The very thought of Jack dying trapped and afraid swirled around in my mind. I couldn't stand knowing that his last breaths might be spent worrying about me, scared that I was dying. I was terrified that there was no stopping it. For some reason though, it felt like he was chasing me, and I was chasing him. It felt like...

… it felt like if I just stopped and turned I'd find her...

_"Jack?"_

"Arcee!" I called out, overjoyed as she came into view.

"Where were you?" I looked into his eyes as he nearly cried in happiness.

"I was looking for you." I lost all self-control and embraced her.

I felt his arms around me... but it was strange. It was like I was perceiving it with all of my senses and more. It felt like he was holding my entire essence in his arms.

She was... somehow backing away from my accidental hug and moving further into it at the same time. Plus I was still... disoriented... it felt like I was doing it... like I was somehow on both sides.

It wasn't like I didn't want him to hold me. Actually, the fact that he was somehow holding me was almost too much for me to stand. I had to fight so hard to resist kissing him. It was like two overwhelming desires for the same act rolled into one mind, _my_ mind.

I stopped thinking about it and kissed her.

I stopped fighting it and kissed him.

My actions were suddenly out of my hands as my hands moved across her body. I didn't even stop to marvel at how she was the same size as me. I could feel her hands exploring my own body with equal want...

… I was overcome by desires as I touched him, and was taken over by by that wanting... no, it was more of a _need_. I'd always had trouble dealing with my feelings when I got in certain moods but this was more than that... twice as pressing, as demanding. Nothing mattered... not being different, because suddenly it was like we weren't. Somehow... there was nothing keeping us apart. Nothing at all. We were free completely from the limits our bodies put between us and...

… I couldn't help but give in to the urge to take advantage. I kissed her again and again, all my desires unleashed and I explored every part of her with my lips... somehow everywhere at the same time... somehow her own lips caressing all that she desired to at the same time. Compelled to action rather than rationality, I pulled her close and held her tight. Slowly we came together and a rush of new feelings came up through my body and filled my chest...

… Slowly, the spark in my chest came together with his soul and another sensation came from my body itself as our bodies joined.

_"AH!"_

Carried away on a flood of sensations, of passions, I almost lost all semblance of coherent thought. We... were together in every sense of the word... I'd felt the merging of sparks before, but this... this was something different. Feelings and bodies entwined in impossible acts of pure emotion. It was as if the very things that made us living, feeling beings were making love.

_Arcee's (completely lucid) Perspective_

"Mmmm." I writhed a little, then jumped awake, panting as if waking from a very intense dream. One I couldn't make any sense at all of.

I looked around and noticed I was in a medlab. From the looks of it it was in the secondary base. A battered but functional Ratchet was at my bedside monitoring my condition, "Thank the AllSpark you're awake. I wasn't sure if your systems were going to overload or not."

He turned to the 'bots standing just outside the crude lab and motioned that they could come in. I was relieved to see that Optimus, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee were all there and that even though they were still mending were all able to get around. Raf and Miko were unharmed but emotionally drained, riding on the shoulders of their respective partners. There was someone missing though.

I sat up and started to get up, "Where's Jack?"

Ratchet pressed a hand to my shoulder and tried to force me back down. I didn't really notice how much force he was applying nor that I wasn't moving an inch, "Stay where you are... Please."

I complied, but looked to Optimus with concern in my eyes, "Where's Jack?"

He shook his head, "I am sorry. We have looked in the rubble for several days now. He is nowhere to be found."

Miko and Raf looked down at their feet, apparently having run out of tears to cry over it.

I shot to my feet, "I have to find him! He's not dead! He can't be dead!"

Suddenly, noticing the clamor next to me, I realized that Ratchet was on the floor. He'd tried to keep me down and apparently I'd stood up with enough force to throw him off me. More surprising was the fact I hadn't even felt him resist. It was then I noticed I was actually nearly halfway across the lab instead of next to my bed.

"How?"

Ratchet stood and, acting like he'd never been thrown down, strode the three steps back to the console and pulled up some readings, "You should look at this."

I was still dazed by what I'd apparently done. It was then, as I was looking around, that I noticed something else strange, "Um... why am I taller than Bumblebee?"

"I said you should look at this." Ratchet tapped the console, "These readings are your diagnostics and physical analysis."

"I see them. What do they mean? I not a-" I stopped... thinking I'd heard something.

Ratchet looked at me, studying me for any sign of collapse or malfunction, "Arcee?"

"I'm fine."  
>The medic pointed at various points on the display of a somewhat unfamiliar body, "Basically, you've been reformatted."<p>

"What? You can do that here?"

He turned and looked at me with a very serious expression, "No. That's the point. You simply reformatted for no known reason. You weren't even near the Matrix when it happened since you were like this before I woke up Optimus. He was three rooms away."

It didn't make any sense, but it also didn't matter, "We'll deal with it later, Jack needs me."

Optimus stepped up and held me in place, which also doubled as catching me as I nearly launched myself into the nearest wall by accident, "Easy. You well know that you need time to adjust."

"I need _Jack_." I blurted out the admission in my distress. I felt a strange sensation near my optics and wiped it off. Looking at my finger... it was some kind of fluid. I had started tearing up, something transformers _can't_ do. We physically _can't_ cry.

Again, I thought a heard something at the edge of my perception.

Ratchet talked over it, "You're in no condition to do anything right now. You don't understand the magnitude of what's happened to you. This is a far greater change than when you were reformatted before. You were just weakened and sped up in that case."

I looked to him, "What's happened to me?" barely standing straight, my mind started getting really fuzzy.

"For one, that disorientation you're feeling is your cerebral processors being overclocked."

"What?"

"For some reason they are operating at double capacity. Half of it is just going in circles though. Sometimes it actually works against the other half. I've never seen anything like it."

"Alright... you said 'for one'. That's my mind, what's with my body?"

He pushed a few buttons, pulling up a set of specs I recognized as being from Optimus... I was stunned. Even without medic training I saw what he meant before he said anything, "You've been reformatted into a Prime. You're specs aren't quite up to the same level as Optimus, as he's a larger and more assault-oriented model. However you received almost the same upgrades as someone with your chassis would gain from taking on the Matrix of Leadership. Actually, as far as processor capacity goes, if you could use it all you'd have much more than any Prime."

"How is that even possible?"

"It shouldn't be. Perhaps the experimental protoform..."

"Nevermind." frustrated, and more than a little overwhelmed from everything going on (especially the fact I was suddenly prone to leaking fluids when I was sad), I pushed Optimus aside and marched awkwardly towards where I knew the groundbridge for the makeshift base was.

Bumblebee put Raf down and ran after me, grabbing my shoulder to keep me from the console, "You can't go in your condition. The 'cons might attack."

I threw his arm off of me, and almost off of _him_ since I still didn't know my own strength, "Don't try and stop me. If Jack's there and the 'cons are watching it... I have to save him." A touch on my shoulder had me whipping around and batting at the source. "I said don't touch me!"

Bumblebee had actually backed up and was looking at me like I was insane. There was nobody within arms' reach of me. So I was suitably alarmed. Especially when I heard a familiar voice say, 'Arcee calm down.' and felt hands on my both my shoulders. I whipped around again and there was still no one there.

"Jack?" My head was... so...

I wanted to let her know I was okay and that I'd come to my senses, but she kept panicking... wait... I kept panicking.

Grabbing my head I called out, "Jack?"

Where was she? I couldn't see her anymore... my body wasn't working right. Trying to take a step I ended up spazzing out like a half-broken marionette and crashing into the ground, "Arcee?"

A room full of shocked and somewhat horrified expressions fell on me, "Why are you looking at me like that?" I stood up, "Didn't you hear him? Jack's here. I mean... I..."

I hit my knees and lost all control of my body, it was like someone else was trying to use it at the same time, then both of us started to panic. I cried out in confusion, and I heard Jack do the same. Ratchet rushed over, his face bearing an expression of resolve as he grabbed my thrashing body and stared straight into my frantic eyes... optics. "Arcee! Listen to me. I think I know how to fix this but you need to focus! Focus your mind and change into your vehicle mode!"

"Why are you calling me-" Jack said from somewhere.

"ASSUME VEHICLE MODE THIS INSTANT, SOLDIER!"

My training kicked in and I reflexively shifted into my motorcycle form. Something felt odd... different. More pressingly, it felt like something was under me. My mind suddenly clear, I quickly went back to robot mode, standing off of it in the same action. What had suddenly been under me surprised me, "Jack? How did-"

Jack was right there, trying to clear his head and fighting back the urge to throw up. Ratchet stood up with a grim and thoughtful expression. Bulkhead was the one to ask the important question and at the same time help clear up my own confusion, "How did Jack get in her robot mode?"

Miko, overjoyed that her friend was still alive, ran over and hugged Jack, "Who cares? I was inside yours once."

"But I have empty spaces. Did you see those readings? You don't have to be medic to see there weren't any holes."

Ratchet had gone back into the lab to grab a scanner, but on the way back explained his theory, "Perhaps the explosion caused a strange accident with her matter conversion systems, effectively converting him into energon." he scanned my head methodically, "Hm. That's odd, though not unexpected."

"What?" I asked, worried. He had only scanned what was equivalent to my brain after all. Well, my primary one at least.

"Your cerebral processors are back to standard parameters." he gave me that familiar 'doctor' look, "Apparently, young Jack was literally 'in your head'."

I froze, thinking about the delirium that had occurred after the explosion effectively merged me and Jack. The chaos of thoughts, mixed identities, and... the... Suddenly piecing everything together (and assuming the resulting mess was correct), I wasn't even entirely sure what to think or say. I glanced at Jack, who met my gaze. Both of us looked away, embarrassed. My mind dizzied itself with shame, guilt, and regret. I stood up too quickly in my alarm and ended up stumbling, nearly flying, backwards and to the ground, "Oh... right. Still reformatted."

"Arcee. Are you alright? Feeling any disorientation?" Ratchet did a more detailed scan.

I pushed him away, climbing very carefully to my feet and did my best to pretend my mistake had never happened, "I'm fine. Once I get used to these changes the 'cons will be getting a heaping helping of payback for putting us through this."

Ratchet, however, didn't seem to hear me. In fact, he was almost frantic in resuming his scan, then rescanned as he quite visibly didn't like the readings, "What in the AllSpark?"

"Um. Care to clarify? That's not a very good thing to hear about a scan of my body."

Jack got shakily to his feet and stepped forward with a look of concern. "Did I break something?"

Ratchet looked thoroughly perplexed, "Something must have gone wrong when you reverted. You're... missing some things."

"Missing things?" Bumblebee asked.

"What things?" I grabbed the scanner.

Ratchet elaborated, in a disturbingly calm manner, "In simple terms, you're missing the part that processes energon and all the systems for ingesting new energon. But the weird thing is, you've got extra parts in their place that I can't identify. They do something, but I don't know what. You also don't seem to need those missing parts anymore. I can't detect any decrease in your energy reserves. It makes no sense."

Optimus took in all the heaps of information in stride, clasping my shoulder in a small gestured of comfort, "Ratchet, devote every moment you can spare into figuring this out. Bulkhead, you have the unenviable job of helping Arcee get used to her new body, as you have one of the higher damage thresholds in the group."

"Oh goody," the weapons expert sighed, "What are you and Bee gonna be doing Optimus?"

His gaze narrowed, "We will be letting the Decepticons know we still live. They are most certainly preparing an assault on Earth under the false belief that we are dead. We must remind them there is still an Autobot line of defense."

Miko stepped up, "What should we do?"

Optimus looked at Jack, who was still wobbly and looked stretched far too thin emotionally, "Take care of each other and lend all the aid you normally would. Hard times are ahead and we will need your support know more than ever."

I couldn't bear to look at Jack in the eye and what glances I managed were met with mutual awkward deflection. He hated me, I was sure of it. I'd surely taken advantage of him in a moment of weakness and mind-sex or not, taken something very precious from him by stripping away the last bit of innocence he had left. I was dead certain that our partnership was over, or at least impossibly complicated.

I was only half right.

Next Chapter: Masterforce

Preview: The extent of the reformatting in explored, a new power is revealed, people angst over misunderstandings (seriously, you'd think all I know how to write is angst lol), and TALKING.

Again, you win a cookie if you get where I'm going with this and what this reformat is referencing.


	12. Chapter 12: Masterforce

Chapter 12: Masterforce

"Ugh!" Bulkhead went down hard from a strike to the face, his pride probably hurt as much as his jaw, "I think you've got it. Can we stop now?"

"Are you kidding?" I sighed, "I haven't even gotten back a tenth of my rhythm yet. All we've done is basic boxing."

He sighed.

"Are you going to get up or stay on the ground and whine?" I snapped.

"Uh." the bot stared at me, shocked at my sudden outburst. I almost never went off on him, or any of the others, like that.

Realizing I'd vented my aggravation on someone that had nothing to do with it, I offered a helping hand, my face regretful, "Sorry. I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself."

Pulling himself up, my friend gave me a reassuring smile, "Hey, you'll get this down in no time and pull through all the crap going on. You're one of the toughest 'bots I know."

"That means a lot coming from you Bulk." I smiled weakly back at him. "So come at me again, I'll try to control my punches a little more."

Bulkhead grabbed his jaw and wiggled it, "I hope so, you hit harder than Optimus."

"That's only because he's too nice to swing at anyone full force, especially an ally. You should have been there when _he_ was getting the hang of his Matrix upgrades. He punched straight through the chest of a tank drone without even using a weapon. His arm nearly came out the back."

"I probably would have sprung a leak in fear." he chuckled.

"It was kind of funny actually. He couldn't get his arm out so he was forced to beat the other drones with it until it broke away."

"_That_ I'd love to see." Bulkhead smiled, "Just don't you try demonstrating it using me. I like my spark chamber breeze-free."

I rolled my eyes, "Let's just get to work on my agility. Come at me."

"Alright." he crouched, "Here I come."

He lunged with a haymaker and I rolled fluidly out of the way and behind him. He quickly came around with a backhanded strike, which I reflexively redirected upwards with a block, then rotated on one leg and planted a modified back-kick to his gut. At least I meant to aim for the gut. My reflexes still weren't used to being taller and I ended up kicking him straight in the point that tipped his center of gravity. What had been intended as only a stunning move sent him bowling over backwards and towards the door.

Which opened at the worst imaginable time, Miko's voice coming from the passage, "Come on Jack, we should see how there doing! Don't you want to see what Arcee can do after getting primed? You've been a-", suddenly seeing Bulkhead careening towards her she screamed. My head was filled with the fear that I'd accidentally killed both her and Jack.

When he came to rest he was lightning quick in getting up. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw they were both totally fine. Miko was on the ground gawking at Jack, who was in front of her protectively as if shielding her, "Thank the AllSpark. That nearly gave me a blown circuit. Sorry, Miko." She kept gawking at Jack, who was wide-eyed for some reason, looking at his hands like they weren't his own. Naturally, Bulkhead was worried, "Miko?"

The little Asian girl hardly managed to form words, "Jack... you just _caught_ Bulkhead..."

The big 'bot went wide-eyed, "What?"

It was sentiment I shared as I walked over to her, "Are you sure Bulk didn't just stop? There's no way that Jack could."

Miko shot to her feet, "THAT WAS SO FREAKIN' AWESOME! He was UNDER Bulk for a second! I mean LITERALLY CAUGHT HIM! As in HELD HIM IN THE AIR! It was only for a second, like deflecting a huge ball, BUT IT WAS AWESOME!"

Jack was still staring at his hands, "Um... Bulkhead?"

"Yeah, Jack?" Bulk replied offhandedly as he pondered how it might have happened.

"Are you bleeding any fluids?"

The big 'bot checked. "No. Why?"

"I think I might have cut myself, but..." he held up his hands, "this is definitely not my blood."

I could only stare blankly at his hands, which were leaking a strange purple fluid. A _glowing_ purple fluid. I had the reaction you'd probably expect, "Jack, get it off your hands! Use your handkerchief or something!"

"Right." In his daze, stopping the fluid had apparently not occurred to him. He pulled the small fabric from his pocket and wiped his hands. Seeing that the stuff was definitely coming from his cut, he applied pressure, "It's no good. Why the hell am I bleeding purple? Is this dark energon or something? What the hell?"

Saying nothing, I swept him up in my hands and rushed him to the infirmary.

* * *

><p><p>

Jack's Perspective

"It just keeps piling on doesn't it?" Ratchet sighed, looking over the scans of Jack's body, "You know I had a theory that Arcee's apparently infinite supply of energy was related to the human ability to enrich energon and that the accident supercharged that, but this I wasn't expecting."

Arcee clenched her jaw in frustration, "Could you get to the point? What's happened?"

Ratchet pointed to the screen and looked to me, "Jack, you should have an idea given the lessons you've been taking. Notice anything familiar, but out of place?"

I didn't have to look that hard, and what I saw amazed me, "Well... we know where those missing parts went now... and some other stuff."

The medic nodded

Arcee had the natural reaction to finding out your parts are suddenly somewhere they shouldn't be, "You mean, Jack has a scaled down version of an energon digestive track?"

"Not a complete one." He explained, "His own 'systems' have merged with it. He can't ingest energon, but his natural human affect on energon is turbo-charged. He's actually _making_ energon." he held up a vial of the purple liquid running through my veins. "This is completely normal human blood aside from all of the water being replaced with liquid energon, a thin but concentrated form actually that is easier for a transformer to process. It's only purple because the colors of the two fluids are mixed together."

"How the heck would his body even use energon?"

I swallowed hard, "The other stuff."

"Huh?"

Ratchet pulled up Arcee's new scans, "He's got one other part that he shouldn't and is common to our kind. However, you're not missing it. One that consumes and manipulates energon.

I explained, "An energon shift-pulse regulator coil, what it regulates is transformation."

Miko was immediately thrilled, even though I was still uncertain of how I felt about it. "You're an autobot now? Awesome! I wonder what you turn into?"

Ratchet quickly dispatched the theory, "No, he's totally different. Still mostly human except for the extra parts, energon, and the fact his entire muscular and skeletal structure is laced with Cybertronian metals. He's more like a human crossed with a protoform, but even then it's different. I can't explain what exactly he is."

Arcee was as awestruck as me, "So what you're saying is... when I was reformatted, so was Jack."

"You could put it that way, yes." pressing a few more buttons, Ratchet continued, "I have a pretty good hypothesis about what he might be... or rather what he might transform into, but testing it might be risky, or at least unpleasant."

I stood from the small table I'd been sitting on, "What do you mean? What's your theory?"

"To put it simply," the medic motioned between the two figures on the display, "I think Arcee doesn't need those parts anymore because you are those parts."

"Huh?" Miko raised an eyebrow.

"Remember, Arcee," he pulled up another scan of Arcee's reformatted body, this one not lacking any parts, "You had all of your parts before you separated from Jack. I thought something went wrong in the process, but you both have coils. I think it was actually by design."

Arcee stepped back, "So you want me to try combining with Jack again?" she glanced at me with a pained expression, "It nearly drove me insane the first time. Are you nuts?"

"You weren't aware of the situation that time. This time you won't panic and this time you will be working together."

"No way. If we can function just fine separate I don't want... just no alright? There's no point in it is there?"

"You're processor was operating at double capacity. If you could learn to use that you could be a peerless warrior on the battlefield."

"I don't need to think any faster."

Regretting what I'd done while in her mind, I stepped forward and tried to make up for taking advantage of her, "If Arcee doesn't want to test it then I don't care what I can change into."

Ratchet expanded the displays, focusing on my transformation coil, "More important than thinking faster is this." he tapped the screen, "Jack's coil is the most advanced I've ever seen. I can only compare it to the coil of a triple-changer."

That was shocking, that meant, "You mean I have two alternate modes?"

The medic shook his head, "No. Like I said yours is more advanced. You actually have three." he turned to Arcee, "There's no telling what he can do or how drastically he can affect your abilities unless we experiment. Commander, for all we know this miracle could tip the balance of the war in our favor."

Arcee eyed me again with that pained expression, I could feel her feelings of regret seeping into me somehow. It was obvious she regretted what had happened between us and I was convinced she hated me for doing that to her. She couldn't exactly argue the point anymore though, "Fine. I see the point in trying. Teach him how to transform." She walked away, trying to look angry rather than sad, "Just trying to wedge him into my transformation would be stupid."

Bulkhead was confused, "Don't you want to-?"

She was already out of the room.

"What's up with her?" Miko wondered, "I get that having someone in your head is probably no fun, but that's just weir-"

"It's nothing, we should just get to work. I mean _I_ should get to work." I felt scared and confused and nervous, only some of it made any sense to me.

Miko could see I wasn't feeling normal, "You alright? You've been acting strange all day. You didn't even want to go see how she was doing this morning. Did you two get in an argument?"

I got angry for no reason, "Tell me how I _should_ act Miko. We were merged together in an explosion and nearly lost our minds in the process. Now we're talking about doing that again. Even if we do work in unison, we might lose our sense of identity and become one person. "

"You can't know that."

"Oh? You want me to blow up a stasis pod and merge you with Bulkhead so you know what it's like? So you'll know how I know? I don't think Bulkhead would look very good in black and pink."

Bulkhead tensed, "Please don't... no offense but I'd like my personal spaces to stay personal.

Miko pouted, "You don't have to be like that, but I understand why you're mad. I'm sorry... I shouldn't have said that."

I shook my head a bit to clear it, "No, it's alright. I've just been a bit overwhelmed, so much stuff happening so fast... so many new sensations. Even though we're not merged I still feel like she's in my head..."

Ratchet mused on it, "Could be some kind of psychic link. Transformers that combine to form a single alternate mode are known to have it sometimes."

"Either way I need to get started on this transforming thing. The 'cons could launch an attack at any moment."

Ratchet aimed a sensor at me for a constant scan, "Normally we have more equipment when teaching a new transformer to take on his alternate form, but most of it is just to ease the process and not really needed. Safety measures and the sort."

I furrowed my brow, "Is this dangerous?"

"Normally not. Most of the measures are in place are for the teachers' sake, in case the alt form has extensive weapons systems." he assured me, "That shouldn't be a problem here. Even if you have weapons I don't see them being a serious threat. Regardless, Bulkhead, take Miko to Raf in the bridge room, we should minimize the people that might get hurt."

Miko seemed disappointed, but a firm glare from me drove the command home.

Ratchet got started the moment they were clear, "The most important thing is to clear your mind. Just focus on the thing you want to be able to do most. Utilizing that desire is the key to assuming another form, especially the first time when the base model of a form is being set."

"Sounds easy enough I guess."

"Not to alarm you, but there is a small chance you might drastically change base appearance after your first transformation. It's only a small chance, especially since you've been transformed once already, but you might not look human anymore. Are you certain you want to risk that?"

I didn't need to think long about it, "If it will help Arcee then there's really no choice needed. I'll do it without hesitation. We're partners."

"Then clear your thoughts and think about what you want to do most."

I closed my eyes. _What I want to do most. Well... the whole point of this first step is take on that merged form with Arcee again. So... merge, merge. Wait. Wouldn't she need to be here for that? _I shook the thoughts away, "Alright, so its not easy."

"It may seem odd to hear this from me, but try to avoid over-thinking it. Just wish it. Go with it."

I tried again. _What I want the most... what I want the most..._ My thoughts wandered to the passionate lovemaking within Arcee's mind, and my body felt strangely overwhelmed by it, then I stopped feeling my arms and legs. "NO!"

I thrashed, violently erupting out of a strange and foreign form. I wasn't even sure what I'd become. My limbs returned first and then I felt slivers of metal slithering into their proper places, knitting my bones and muscles together from something else, "AAAHHHHH!"

Last was the layers of my skin reforming on my body and my hair slipping back out. I ended up a heap on the floor, wide-eyed and breathing hard. Ratchet had a sympathetic look, "The first one is sometimes unpleasant."

"You could have warned me!"

Miko ran in, or rather tried to, before Bulkhead caught her and made sure she didn't get in the way, "Jack! Are you alright?"

A clamor preceded Arcee sending Bulkhead flying aside with a shove and looking wide-eyed in panic into the lab, "Jack!"

I could feel her concern pouring through me, almost like it was a piece of me, but in the back of my mind, I struggled to my feet, "Arcee, I'm okay. Just had a rough first time."

"I'm so sorry... I-" she hesitated. "Never mind... I'll get out of your way."

"You don't have to-"

"I'd just get in the way and break your focus." she turned to leave.

"Arcee!" I started to walk after her, but since I was still fuzzy from the changing she was out of the room again before I could even get to the door.

Miko looked at me, "Something happened, that's for sure... but I'll mind my own business this time."

I sighed, going back into the lab, trying to push the pounding sensation of Arcee's fretting to the background of my mind, "Let's just get this over with."

Bulkhead scraped himself (metaphorically) from the floor, "I'm fine by the way. Thanks for asking."

Miko went over to console her partner's injured pride, "Ooooh, poor Bulkhead! Come here for a hug."

"Miko..." he grumbled, embarrassed, but didn't fight her embracing his massive hand like a teddy bear.

"Anyway." Ratchet ignored their antics, "That was an interesting first attempt. Fortunately, you have retained your original appearance."

"More importantly," I got to the heart of the matter, "What did I turn into?"

"The missing parts, which is probably another reason you panicked. A fascinating thing to note is you also had the makings of an autobot neural network attached to the parts, which explains the merging of minds."

"I guess that's form one then."

"What shall we call it? Referring to it by the schematics would take a long time. Perhaps 'mind-link'?"

"Let's just figure out the other forms first."

"Sounds good, perhaps there will be a theme."

"Is there normally a theme for triple-changers?"

"Actually no, often they make absolutely no sense at all. Like 'Astrotrain' for example."

"Forget I asked." I sighed, "Alright... what I want to do most..." _Aside from have weird but amazing mind-sex with Arcee that is. Don't think about that night... think unsexy thoughts. _I promptly slipped and thought sexy thoughts, slipping into the same mode again. It wasn't as bad the second time, but it felt like my brain was being strung into wires, which it was. I quickly and somewhat smoothly resumed human form, "Remind me to never do that one on purpose without Arcee."

"I imagine having your neural systems stretched out and trying to connect to something that isn't there is quite uncomfortable."

"Yeah." pushing it aside I focused. I had to come up with something else. I wanted to be helpful to Arcee, but I couldn't change into any combat forms or anything, no matter how much I wished it.

"You're thinking too hard." Ratchet advised.

I snapped at him, "This is hard okay? Human brains aren't designed for this kind of thing you know."

My outburst was ignored, "Maybe you should think of what matters to you instead of goals. That sometimes helps."

Focusing, I though about what really mattered. I recalled how Arcee was lacking the parts that processed energon and even though I knew she didn't need them anymore, the thought of her powering down was painful. So was the ensuing transformation. The final product this time however was not that bad at all, though it was weird being a pair of boxes connected by a thick wire.

Ratchet studied my form and the scans, "Interesting. You lack the advanced neural network, but the form is otherwise the same. This form is focused on supplying energy."

I had a slightly hard time resuming my human form, but something occurred to me on the way. I focused and retracted my skin again, leaving an almost identical, but featureless metal form. That state was not hard to take on, but I had to constantly will it, unlike the other transformations, "Huh. I thought this might be a mode." I slipped back to fully human.

"No, the readings show it as a partial transformation."

I nodded, "I noticed when I tried it. Handy side-feature then."

"Yes, I see how being able to have your outer-shell become metal would be useful for a human." he mused wryly, "Moving on."

I focused on finding my last form. Arcee's frustration was still on the edge of my senses, and I almost accidentally wished I could strike out against everything that was making her feel bad, even though one of them was me. Before I knew it, I was a gun.

Ratchet was surprised, "That was unexpected. Both in that you found it so fast and that it is something completely different than the other two." He picked me up, " A little small. Can you change size?"

I couldn't speak to relay that I felt like I could, but was having trouble getting it to work. Somehow, I just knew I could do certain things in the form, but I couldn't actually do them. I noted Ratchet aiming at the wall and pulling my trigger to no effect, so I tried willing myself to fire, blowing a small whole in the wall. On that, I resumed human form, very easily actually, "No. I get the feeling I can though. I just _couldn't_. More than that... it felt like I could reconfigure myself in different ways in that form."

Ratchet set me down, "Hm... perhaps youer forms only fully function with Arcee. I presume that stray shot was actually you willing it and not a malfunction of the trigger?"

"Yeah."

Arcee walked in again, investigating the blaster fire, "I heard... a shot, but only one. That was Jack?"

She was so reluctant... so unlike her normal self. It hurt me inside that I was the one that made her so meek, "Yeah. I can turn into a weapon, a neural network, and a power supply."

"To be exact, an overdrive converter not a power supply. It's a device that burns energon quickly to boost performance briefly. You should be careful with it since it might drain Jack."

"Right." Arcee noted.

The medic stood, "If I may, I believe I have devised a suitable name for what you two have become." He pointed to a screen of equations, "I will refer to the bonding process that created this unique situation 'binary bonding'. This more refers to what has happened to Jack's body than anything. The two of you when paired seem to be able to augment certain aspects of Arcee to the level of masters in those categories, so I will call both of you masterforms."

"That's a bit cheesy." I winced.

"I like it!" Miko announced, "Together you are... THE MASTERFORCE!"

Over at his place near the groundbridge, Raf gave a thumbs up.

Ratchet continued, ignoring her, "The three forms Jack has will be referred to by what they are designed to augment: Headmaster for the processor, Targetmaster for the weapon, and the overdrive form will be known simply as Powermaster."

Arcee looked away, "I'll use the Targetmaster thing."

Ratchet was at a loss, "But the other two... thinking twice as fast, and bursts of super-ability-"

"Require merging." Arcee glared, "That's... too big a risk."

Miko got all worked up again, not reading the mood, "You guys can do it. You've always been so in-sync before what's the problem?"

I felt overwhelming sadness from my partner, "That's none of your business! I didn't ask for this to happen! Stop acting like this is such a great thing! I-" She stormed off, and out of the base.

Leaving Miko flabbergasted, I quickly followed, determined to beg on my hands and knees for forgiveness. I had to explain myself, make everything right. I had to at least try to fix our broken trust.

Arcee's Perspective

What a time to not be able to cry anymore. I really really wanted to. My entire world had shattered around me in the past few days. My home destroyed, my friends nearly killed, someone I cared deeply for betrayed me, and then... then I broke the trust and shattered the innocence of the most important person in my life. Screw being a tough chick... I had every right to be a weak crybaby and if anyone disagrees I'll kick them in the face until they agree.

I hadn't gone far from the new base, something proven by Jack walking over with a sad expression. I didn't even have to look at him to know what he was feeling. I could feel the regret as if he were voicing it to me himself. He regretted everything about what we had done in that chaos. I didn't want to hear whatever he had to say to me. I was sure he hated me.

I didn't expect him to say, "I'm sorry, I-"

"Why are you apologizing?" I said in dismay. Him thinking it was his fault was more painful than anything else.

Somehow he didn't understand what I meant, "Why? Why shouldn't I? After all-"

I talked over him partway through, "Because-"

In unison we both completed our sentences, "I'm the one who forced you..." awkward pause, Wait..."

Jack backpedaled, "Are we both talking about... you know... what happened while we were merged?"

"If you are... then... you mean we both thought..."

"Arcee, you thought you forced me to make love with you?"

"Y-yeah... I didn't?" I had a hard time processing it, "You thought _you_ forced _me_?"

We just sat there for several moments, staring at each other as if we'd both received one of those error messages that used to pop up on the screens so much. Our palms went to our faces in perfect unison as we laughed softly at ourselves.

Jack was the first to say something, "Arcee... I..." he swallowed hard, "I love you... I can't explain it but I do. I never thought you could feel the same way."

"I thought the same thing. To be honest, I've felt like you were a part of me well before you literally became one. I love you too."

I reached a large hand down to him and he wrapped an arm around one finger, "That night... every single desire I locked away came out and I... well..."

I smiled, "Yeah... me too. After the fact though I was so stressed out and it turned out to be for no reason."

Our feelings for each other were coming across through our bond even more clearly than ever, probably since we weren't hiding away from each other in embarrassment anymore. Jack kicked the sand a bit and tried to find a place to look, as he was going to say something bold, "Maybe... um... we could try the merging thing again."

I chuckled, and probably would have blushed a little at what he was thinking if I was physically capable of it at the time.

He grinned mischievously, "Just so we can get used to using these handy powers I mean. Strictly business."

"Yeah." I rolled my eyes, "I'm sure that's what you have in mind, Jack Darby."

I swept him up in my hand and brought him gently to my face, wanting to feel him on my actual body, the one so incompatible with his. I wanted him to understand why I had been so afraid of my feelings. He knew what I wanted him to do and he kissed where he could. With my old body we could have actually kissed, even though my mouth had been large it was close enough. After getting 'primed' (as Miko had put it), he could only kiss the corner of my mouth. The problem was clear, I could tell from his expression and the emotions our link revealed that he understood. I'd been so afraid that I could never give him the physical affection he deserved from a relationship. I could feel his kiss and could feel him if I kissed him. If we touched I would feel him. All _he_ would ever feel from my body would be cold metal. He could never derive any pleasure from contact with cold hard metal.

He looked into my optics with a smile on his face regardless, "So... um... does this make you my girlfriend or what?"

I rolled my eyes and smiled, opening a comlink to base. Ratchet was quick to speak, "Arcee, are you alright? You left in quite a state of distress."

"Yeah." I stood, carrying Jack as I walked _away_ from the base, "You know, I think Jack and I need some time to ourselves to sort out this whole change in our partnership."

"Are you sure that's wise? What about the risks?"

I looked at Jack and we smiled at each other, "I think we can handle it."

(A/N: Cue cheesy happy ending music)

(A/N: Incoming horror to spoil the mood. Mild gore warning)

_Elsewhere..._

"Monica, please! I didn't mean to stand you up last night. I swear! My old man was giving me a hard time about the car and-" Eddie Bonnet stopped his walk through the woods of the city park when something wet landed on his shoulder. Brushing it off, Eddie noted with repulsion that it was gooey and had a strange glint in the light, "Ugh. Stupid trees."  
>"Eddie?"<p>

"Nothing, I was walking through the park and some tree sap dripped on me. It's just the jacket though. I'll be on time this time I promise."

Taking a route that would lead out of the 'stupid trees', Eddie suddenly found himself halted. He couldn't step any further... or back up... our move his arms. "What is..."

"Eddie, is something wrong?"

Looking up. The teen dropped his cellphone in fear, a strange oozy substance dripping from the mouth of something hideous and unseen as the web holding him in place shook. The web he hadn't seen until then. The grotesque form of a massive hairy spider crawled down while its drool began to lull Eddie's awareness, as if the web weren't paralyzing enough.

Then, the soon-to-be snack felt something happening to his body. It didn't hurt at first, but soon... as his body slowly lost cohesion and he felt every shift of the matter of his body, he wished he could still scream.

The spider spoke in a husky, seductive voice, "Don't make promises that you can't keep."

The girl on the phone line was suddenly up-in-arms, "Eddie, is that a woman's voice? I knew it! You're cheating on me! I'll never-" and she continued to ramble, her whining and crying drowning out the sound of a once human protoplasm being consumed.

Meal finished, the spider crushed the phone under one spire-like leg and started changing, chitinous plates cracking like breaking bones and sinew flexing in ways that it couldn't be designed to. A freakish horror show of a transformation, large chunks of spider and fluids fell aside in gross testament to the creature lacking the matter conversion systems of the transformers. Finally, after several nightmares' worth of hellish sounds passed, a shapely but discolored feminine form stood, with four extra eyes in her forehead and arms that split into two segmented legs instead of forearms or hands. Two huge and weapon-like legs rooted to her back were designed for mass-murder.

The thing looked at her grotesque form and spoke in the same sultry tone as before, but made into a hiss by the still hardening form of her newly shaped mouth, "Not enough... I _need_ more..."

Killing impulses and the madness of monstrous instincts crept up in her mind and threatened to consume what was left of her sanity. She struggled, hanging on to the thoughts of the only creatures she could always direct all of that psychotic aggression towards. The image of a boy at her feet, her final revenge sealed, the memory of an enraged cry from a motorcycle that rammed into her and released a pulse of pure energon to burn her away and destroy what little she had left... stealing her progress... stealing her beauty...

A mutated hand reached out and snapped a nearby tree in half like a toothpick, but such minor destruction would not quench the rage of the wandering monster, nor would her tortured cries, "ARRRRRCEEEEEEEEE!"

Next Chapter: Reborn

Preview: More romantic-fluffy-happy-time, more sadistic-gooey-scary-time, and an old enemy clashes with a certain transformer.

In other words: Yay! Filler chapter!

A/N: Masterforce was a Transformers series in Japan that was mostly unrelated to the concepts of Headmasters, Targetmasters, and Powermasters all of which are from many series in Japan that came after the last portions of the original Transformers that we got in the U.S. The American concept of each is that Transformers form a bond with an organic partner, who were usually from a planet I have referenced in passing in a previous chapter. Look it up on a decent Transformers wiki if you're interested in more information. However, I made Jack ALL THREE. So technically we've both simultaneously fallen into the cliché of Jack becoming an Autobot to be with Arcee and avoided it at the same time. Hurray for weird ideas! Hurray for surprise mind-sex!

And finally, hurray for Black _Air_achnia.


	13. Chapter 13: Reborn P1  Primed and Ready

Chapter 13: Primed and Ready (alternate title: "Reborn Part 1: Primed and Ready")

A hand grabbed mine and pulled me back from an abyss that, until the save, I didn't even know I had fallen in. The same hand pulled me from the dangerous depths and into an embrace, "Careful. I know how tempting it is, but we have to stay focused and alert. We can't let ourselves hide away in here."

"Jack." I smiled fondly, caressing him, "Thanks. I nearly lost myself there. It's just so comfortable... I keep wanting to-"

His gentle touch slid across the fringe on my jaw as I spoke and then caressed my cheek. He cut my words off with a gentle kiss. We were together, in my mind... our mind. It was a paradise where there was nothing else but us and we could be together without physical limitations or worldly concerns. It would be so easily to just give up on the world and plunge headlong into eternal bliss. I knew Jack felt the same way, and that he understood and I didn't need to tell him that. We were of one mind in many meanings of the phrase.

The kiss itself conveyed that, joined by a pleasant tingling sensation that I'll admit made me feel a bit 'giggly' inside. Since we technically were inside, it was hard not to give in to that feeling. When he pulled away from the kiss I couldn't hold back from smiling like an idiot.

He laughed, "Wow, you never act like this, Arcee, you're so girly suddenly."

I pulled him to me, holding him tight and nuzzling his neck, taking in the feeling of the contact like a nutrient, "I've been the tough chick for so long, can't I just be a chick when I'm with you? I want to lay all my weaknesses out and know I'm still alright. I've been so lonely... I want every art of who I am to be accepted." _by someone._ The last part I hadn't meant to think and surely didn't want to send the wrong message, but we shared a mind.

Jack heard it, and a series of emotions cascaded back and forth between us. His anger and fear over thinking I was with him out of loneliness and that anyone would do, my sadness that I had conveyed the wrong message and fear that he wouldn't understand. An argument about emotions started, composed of, and settled with the transference of emotions leading to mutual understanding.

We both backed slightly away from each other, but Jack voiced the reason, "That was a weird experience."

"Yeah." I looked to him and started to verbally reassure him.

He held up a hand to stop me, "I get it. I felt what you meant in that weird argument thing."

My feelings probably conveyed themselves, but I felt the need to say them, "I'm scared of this Jack, but I want it. I want you to be the only one I show my weak side to, because I know you'll accept it and I know you won't judge it or think less of me for it. You're the only one I trust that much." other _than Optimus._ "Crap. Don't take that the-"

My partner turned lover held my shoulders firmly and affectionately as he laughed at my unease, "I know. Your relationship with Optimus is totally different than ours."

Thinking of it made my thoughts drift to Hot Rod... and my lingering feelings were accidentally laid to bare in front of Jack. I couldn't hide anything from him while we were together like we were.

Jack looked at the feelings, quite thoroughly actually and with a serious expression, then answered the question in my mind, "This is how I feel about that..."

He kissed me roughly, as if to drive Hot Rod from my mind and I was flooded with his emotions as he openly displayed them to me. Anger at the 'bot, jealousy, an all-consuming possessiveness tempered by gentleness, understanding, compromise, and honest love for me. It was unimaginable how completely greedy and completely selfless that one emotion could be and how identical it was to my own. I returned the kiss with equal longing and we began to roll around in the throes of passion again, wrestling lovingly for dominance in the quasi-physical act of affection.

When it was over, we managed to keep our minds separate for the first time. Every other of the many times we had made love, chaos had followed as our beings threatened to merge. Actually, when we had first re-entered the combined state, it had been difficult to avoid being overwhelmed by our mutual desires and to _stop_ making love. You can_ imagine_ how hard it would have been to use the combination in battle without fixing that. Not that the practice wasn't enjoyable.

Jack pecked me on the lips with a smile as I unwittingly conveyed that thought to him, and he's slightly mischievous mood and affection for me tickled a part of my psyche that was dangerous to tease. I ended up tackling him and having my way with him again.

After the fact, he chuckled, slightly out of breath, "Not that I mind it, but we need to control ourselves."

I grinned, "This coming from a _male_? What's the universe coming to?"

I felt a spark of lust provoked within him by m teasing, but he battled it back.

Impressed I, "wonder why you can control that better than me?"

_Loneliness._ Came to both our minds at the same time. As strong a person as I was, I didn't _need_ anyone else to make me whole or hold my hand or be with me, but of the two of us I _wanted_ it so much more. It wasn't because I was a girl. It was because of a life full of loss, death, and having to shut things like hurt and sadness away for the greater good. Like a hole punched in a tank, all that stored up loneliness came pouring out at the slightest breach of my protective shell. The togetherness with Jack had been a full-fledged _missile_ to the side of the tank.

He held my hand and we kissed again, him holding back his own desires from me so we could simply make out without proceeding into making love. It was as much for the enjoyment of it as it was practice to control our impulses and I tried my hardest not to give in. Even though I pinned him down and got a bit aggressive (shaking his own control I might add), I managed to keep my my carnal lusts at bay.

I smiled at the small victory, "Now... now we need to actually manage this kind of thing while aware of the rest of the world."

He nodded and conveyed his idea directly to me empathically. It built off what we had done to keep our minds apart when merged into the same body, which was visualize a space where we both were that existed within my mind. Like an imaginary pocket dimension for the two of us. Creating a separate space for our minds to dwell. Jack held my hand as we tried to expand it to fill my entire body.

He explained, "Take the lead, like-"

"When we drive together." I understood the idea, I'd had it at the same time. There was a weird kind of unison in our intentions as my optics started working again and I stood, taking time to make sure the cave we'd sealed ourselves in was still secure. The feeling of being merged but separate entities was strange and at the same time pleasant, like walking beside someone while holding hands. Except instead of beside each other, we shared the same space, the same body.

_"This is good."_ he smiled.

I wavered a little, but quickly adjusted, "Don't think so hard." wait... I'd said that out loud. Could I... yes, I could speak only in my head too, _"It's jarring if you think too strongly."_

_ "I'll try to think more gently."_ he nodded, intending to me an action conveyed to me, but instead he did it through me, accidentally nodding my head and tipping the balance of control. _"Sorry."_

I managed to get back in the driver's seat before we fell over and held onto it firmly, too firmly, as I felt a strange pain from Jack, _"Sorry."_

It didn't take long to find the sweet spot in dominance. It was actually the same place mentally as when driving with him, so it was familiar ground. It occurred to both of us to use the same system of signals to each other when we wanted control to shift. He would 'squeeze' at a part he wanted to have and I would yield, squeeze again when he was done. When I wanted it back or wanted him to control it I'd 'push' slightly against the bit of his consciousness within the part. The plan of action lent extra firmness to our resolve and our balance. The comfort of a process I guess.

Jack came up with something else, _"Let's try something. If one of us wants to coordinate something complex or suggest a move..."_ his visualized me jumping, and a lot of information came to me like a snapshot, _"We shoot a picture to the other."_

_"How did you do that?"_ I wondered and was a small bit overwhelmed by all the data he'd actually sent me. Along with the action had come everything he'd noticed about the area we were in. Some of which I hadn't noticed.

_"I just kinda wished it. Like transforming sorta."_

I shot him an image, it was actually easy.

He received, _"That works. Wow, though, a lot of information. How am I-"_

_"Processing it so easily?"_ I thought back to Ratchet noting that in this combination my processor worked at double capacity.

Jack got the recollection as well when I sent it over, along with my thoughts on it, _"Yeah. This mode is even more useful than I thought it could be. If we can coordinate our awareness then nothing will slip by us."_

I nodded, _"Let's see if we can move."_

_"Feel free."_ he signaled I could have the 'wheel'.

First of all, I bent over and checked the beacon I'd setup as security and an alarm clock, "We've been here over a day. Two more hours and the beacon would've forced me to wake up."

_"We worked faster than we expected."_

_"Yeah. I thought it would take a few attempts and at least four days."_

I turned it off and moved to the door, free of even the remaining awkwardness of my new form. Either it was the extra processing power or I'd just adjusted naturally to it. I grabbed the large stone barring the way and grinned, _"Want to go nuts?"_

_ "You have to ask?"_

Rolling the rock out of the way I charged out of the cave with every bit of speed my legs could manage in a flat out run. I shot Jack a warning and somersaulted, landed with a rolling downward strike and came to a full stop in a crouching position. "Good. Feels good."

I'd always been comfortable in fights and and always gone all out, but having Jack there seemed to push me a little further, give me an edge. It was likely the confidence of having someone there watching your back, as I always exceeded my limits more easily when I had others with me. Everyone does. It's a natural part of being a sentient being. It was even stronger this time though, because that partner was as with me as anyone could get and watching my back as much as anyone possibly could.

Cutting those again I bolted a new direction and changed my hands to guns, shooting imaginary drones in the sand. Jack squeezed and pulled my attention to a point out of my firing arc. I pushed on a leg and shot him some instructions as I threw myself into the air at an angle. We cooperated in controlled my trajectory, with most of m focus on shooting at the point and then easing back into control in time to land. Jack threw me a curve ball by sending me an image and squeezing, grabbing control to whip me around and shoot at a point behind me.

I grinned, "We should practice this more... get it drilled into our reflexes."

It took me a second to realized we'd both said that and I staggered back, nearly falling over, but regaining my focus and footing almost right away. I'd become Jack for an instant without noticing, nearly losing myself to our little synchronization. It was only a slight dip, and I'd caught myself. More like nearly falling over than a major event. I could adjust and prevent it with practice, just like practicing one's balance.

_"Sorry."_ Jack freaked out a little, disorienting me in the process.

_"It's fine. Calm down. Mutual fault. We need to run that again and again until we can go in-sync without tripping up."_

_ "Yeah."_ he agreed, but I could feel the weight of concern.

_"I need you to loosen up, Jack. Even though that's weird coming from me."_

_ "Got it. I'll keep my eye on the prize. We can do this."_

Even with practice and getting better at syncing up our actions, it was like dancing on the edge of a knife. If we moved in perfect sync too long we risked 'falling'. We could manage though. We just had to keep that fine balance and not unify too much for too long. It was manageable. It was time to move on. Jack brought up the next order of business: The other forms he had. We needed to run a combat drill for those, especially changing on the fly. The Powermaster form was nearly identical to Headmaster, except without linked minds, so we went with that first.

Jack shot me an image of what he had in mind. He wanted to go all out right away I complexity, test the limits, so I charged forward across the sand, we teamed up to start a diving leg sweep to an imaginary target, and he changed as the moved launched, pumping a burst of power into the move. The extra force created a huge wave of sand slightly taller than me and as I spun around the force and speed conjured a small twister of dust. When he threw extra power into the uppercut aimed at the drone falling towards us, the strike came with such force behind it that it seemed like the sand in the air had explode up and away from my arm. There was so much flying dust I could barely see. I was confident thought that if that combination had hit anything, even a full-fledged 'con and not a drone, the fight would have been immediately ended. The rush of power had felt like enough to rip a 'bot's torso from its body. I was amazed at how the extra push had let me rotate and uppercut from so close to the ground.

I quickly noticed something wrong, as it took a moment for Jack to turn back in Headmaster mode and when he did..., _"Jack? What's wrong?"_

He sounded hurt, but laughed it off, _"Ugh... Nothing. I just went too far. I put too much into it."_

Jack sent me a recollection of Ratchet saying how that form might drain Jack's energon reserves instead of mine. I frowned, _"That's not good. We..."_

_"Just have to pace ourselves with that."_ He cut me off, _"I learned my limit."_

I wanted to argue, but I can feel his confidence, insistence, and desire to do every single thing he could do to help me. It's hard to argue with a boyfriend like that, and my thinking that gave him a burst of energy.

_"Boyfriend."_ He grinned, _"I like the sound of that."_

I fell over like a sack of potatoes as he tried to 'hug' me from inside, realizing he couldn't safely act that independently he backed off again. I grumbled a bit but wasn't mad, _"Don't do that while we're conscious."_

He thought about the problem, then did the control signal 'squeeze' everywhere at once, beaming me a little love to add the right meaning, _"How about-"_

I fell over again and wriggled a bit on the floor, the sensation being far more enjoyable than either of us expected. In hindsight, we should have known that squeezing my entire body with love would have that effect.

Jack grinned, _"Oh that is just adorable."_

_"Don't you dare, Jack Darby!"_

He 'love-squeezed' me all over, over and over again, making me writhe in enjoyment in the sand until I 'broke-free' of his teasing and gave him a little mental kick, _"I said stop!"_

_"Ow!"_

Grinning, I turned the sensation on him and taunted, which resulted in my body rolling around as if wrestling someone. _"How do you like it? Huh?"_

_"Stop! That's so weird. Ah!"_ he wiggled, _"On second thought, keep doing that... but lower."_

I got more aggressive in my playful teasing and by accident, we fell back into our little pocket world and descended back into the state we'd started the day in: fooling around and having trouble _not _having wild, crazy mind-sex.

Not long after, the sun was setting as we... _I_ sat up again and Jack came along for the ride. Instead of the sensation of walking with me, it became like he was sitting behind me with his arms around me. It felt nice, but as we idled there together and rested, my mind wandered to what had been going on. After all I couldn't avoid dealing with it forever. I'd been driven from our home by a betrayal, Megatron was seemingly back in control of his forces, including two new ones, and they might launch a full-scale assault at any moment.

_"They'll be biting off more than they can chew."_ Jack 'reached down' and 'held my hand' with a localized and light love-squeeze. He read my next thought too, _"And we'll confront Hot Rod too. It didn't seem like he had much choice in the matter. Megatron did something to him."_

_"There's always a choice. If if he wasn't lying and disobeying would kill him... autobots are raised to be selfless. He shouldn't hesitate to die rather than sacrifice his allies." _Against my will, the fact that he had tried to save me stuck out in my mind and hurt me a little inside.

I could feel a bit of jealousy from Jack at my reaction but he curbed it,_ "That brings up an interested point. How the hell did he miss you from that close?"_

_"I don't know."_

_ "If disobedience twice means death like he said... he couldn't have missed on purpose. I don't get it. Plus... why wait a month to betray us? Was Megatron just unable to make a move?"_

We both thought on that, and both of us combined came up with realization, which I voiced, _"He didn't even ask for the base's location until a short time before he betrayed us."_

Jack continued putting the theory to words, _"You can't exactly obey an order you can't possibly follow. Maybe he avoided the knowledge so he could refuse to give Megatron the coordinates? Megatron got wise to it obviously."_

_ "It's a stretch of logic, but that does sound like something he would think of."_ I remembered something suddenly. When Hot Rod had first refused to kill me his optics had dimmed... no 'con control device I knew of would dim the optics.

Seeing my thoughts, the same light bulb went off in Jack's head, _"His first act of disobedience wasn't just pleading against it. He must have done something to his eyes at the same time, that way-"_

_ "Then he 'obeyed' the second order he'd miss! It makes sense how he missed now!"_ I stood up sharp, _"Hot-Shot you magnificent bastard you're fighting every step of the way!"_

_ "He tried his best to not betray us. He tried his best to make sure we lived when he did. Right now he's probably working his hardest trying to find a way to get free."_

My spark-throbbed a bit in heartache as a part of me pitied my once-love... I didn't want Jack to know that I was having that feeling, but a 'touch' and emotion sent from him assured me he understood. I verbalized my feelings anyway, _"I'm still pissed off at him for not doing the noble thing and going out with a bang, but I can't be totally unreasonable... he's fighting it as much as he can. He's too cowardly to accept death, but brave enough to not submit quietly. Why does he have such a knack for making me pissed off and impressed at the same time?"_

Jack clenched my fist in determination, _"Ask him after we save him."_

I smiled.

'Tugging' me to my feet, he let me feel his willingness to fight for Hot Rod, despite the fact he was my ex and psyched himself up for more training, _"Now... let's figure out my Targetmaster form. I've got an urge to blast stuff now."_

Next Chapter: Hidden and Seeking

Preview: We jump to Hot Rod's perspective for the second part of the "Reborn" two-parter. It's his first mission as a decepticon. What is it? What is the fallout from the Autobots surviving? Are Scourge and Cyclonus really serving Megatron now? Stay tuned.

A/N: I intended to make this and the next chapter a single part, but this section turned out much longer than I thought it would so I split it.


	14. Chapter 14: Reborn P2 Hidden and Seeking

Chapter 14: Hidden and Seeking

"Nice paint-job, drone colors really suit you." Knockout gloated as I strode past him on the Nemesis.

I rolled my eyes, "Go polish yourself, Knocked-out."

"Ooo, you really are a Hot Rod. Best watch the lip." the 'con punched me in that very lip, decking me. I started to dash at him to retaliate, but the shell program in my chest wrenched my spark when unbearable agony that sent me crashing to the floor, which my aggressor simply loved, "Yeah, definitely watch that lip. We both know that if you get too 'excited' it's curtains. So calm down." he bent over and patted me head, "Doctors orders."

The speedster had had it in for me since I shot him at the landing zone and got even more reason to hate me when I shafted him during my dash for the pod, so every second of my life that he could make miserable he took. Changing my colors from red with yellow flames to the same pattern but in drone black and purple was his idea. 'To put him in his place' he said. Then there was the beatings that like this one always left me watching him leave and swearing to rip his spark from his chest even if it was the last thing I ever did. It would be kinda poetic, since he was the first person I saw on my arrival to the system it was only fitting that he be the last thing I see on the way out. After all, I needed to repay his earlier chest operation in kind.

A voice called out over the com system, Starscream's, "Hot Rod to the bridge. Lord Megatron would like a word with you. _Now_."

I wasn't far away, so I climbed to my feat and made my way to the command center which naturally doubled as the bridge of the ship. Starscream was yelling at me like he mattered before I even announced my presence, "Would you care to explain how Optimus Prime and his wretched yellow scout still not only walk among us, but decimate our vehicon scouting parties and energon mines?"

I walked past him as if he weren't even there and glanced at the stoic black figures of Scourge and Cyclonus, who grinned with satisfaction at my somber expression. They only reminded my of how I had failed my crew on every conceivable level. Looking away from my shame, I instead focused on Megatron, "You wanted to speak to me, Megatron?"

"Address him properly, drone." Starscream spat.

Megatron turned, "Shut up, Starscream, I find his constant small defiances far more amusing than your continuous attempts at kissing my hindquarters." he shifted his mad gaze from the minion to me, "It seems your former allies are far more resilient than I gave them credit for. So much so in fact that I wonder how in all creation they managed to recover from an amount of damage that would offline anyone, much less be in fighting condition in a matter of days."

"Maybe they got some upgrades? I never got around to asking." I grinned spitefully.

"You are by far the worst spy I have ever seen, autobot." Cyclonus scoffed.

I shrugged, my smile turning more wry, "Hey, you never told me to ask. How was I supposed to guess that you wanted me to?"

"Excellent point." Megatron looked at me with a measure of respect, "Just like I never gave you a deadline when I ordered you to find the coordinates of the autobot base. An oversight I shall not make again."

That got the grin off my face, "What would you have me do?"

He turned and motioned at the monitor. "Soundwave detected some strange energon readings near the Canadian border in this area."

"Don't you have vehicons for scouting energon?"

"This is no energon deposit. The signal is moving."

"In that case Soundwave, Scourge, and Cyclonus are aerial 'cons, wouldn't they be far more suited?"

The decepticon leader turned a pointed at me with a sick smile on his face, "I want you to investigate and I want _you_ to _immediately_ kill _any_ autobot that tries to stop you from finding the source. If this signal is some kind of weapon, _I want it_. If it's an autobot vessel I want its occupants killed _promptly_ and the vessel _plundered_. You leave _immediately_." the 'con accentuated the important parts and made sure to thoroughly establish deadlines for each thing I would try to defy."

However, he still wasn't onto my little trick of tweaking my targeting systems and if I had anything to say about it he never would. Even inspection from the Nemesis' medic was a simple enough thing to avoid. All I had to do was untweak them and then tweak them again later. Avoiding him getting a good look at them while they were tuned down was easy enough too since never making eye contact made perfect sense. I just had to be careful to never get knocked unconscious while they were changed.

In case you were wondering: The irony of my using deception (quite cleverly to boot) to avoid becoming a decepticon is not lost on me.

I bowed to the 'con with my leash, "Yes, Megatron. Right away."

The two new 'cons, which Knockout had dubbed 'protocons', took on a military stance I didn't recognize and in unison declared, "For the glory of Unicron!" as if if making a salute as a farewell.

"Or not." I dismissed the sentiment and walked out. I could hear Megatron laugh slightly at my rebuttal.

I had to give the guy credit, he'd managed to get the new powerful protocons to follow his lead. Appealing to their loyalty to a god that most didn't even fully believe existed, he claimed that he was working for the glory of Unicorn as they were, and somehow managed to convince them it was true. I hadn't been around at the time, so I don't know what exactly happened, but it was clear they didn't fully follow him. They were first and foremost loyal to the ideals of Unicron, and claimed both they and Megatron belonged to the death god. They had even refused to be rank and file and we constantly on the bridge acting as officers, even though they were all but fresh out of the pod. Not that any of the other 'cons were in a position to argue. I got the distinct impression that the two zealots were as strong as Megatron, who was the leader of a band that valued power above all else for a reason. Scourge alone could decimate the entire vehicon army in a matter of minutes, less time if he reanimated them on the way through. Cyclonus' speed and maneuverability in _and _out of vehicle mode put him so far over most of the other decepticons that they might as well not try to hit him. Either of them alone were a major threat to the autobot efforts on Earth.

Not that I was in any position to comment on anything autobot-related. I didn't deserve to call myself one and I hadn't thought of myself as one for a long time, even before the shell program was installed to control me. I had no right to claim I was one of a proud race of brave and selfless philosopher/warriors. Of those four things I was only one, a warrior. A bold one, but boldness doesn't equal bravery.

Then again... I was waxing philosophical a lot, so maybe I was one and a half out of the four.

I waved offhandedly in greeting to the 'con on the controls for the groundbridge system and he nodded indifferently. Sure I didn't have any love for any of the decepticons, but me being snippy to every single one of them regardless of of what they did was not going to endear the autobots to anyone. Even if I didn't regard myself as one, they did, so I needed to act the image. In hindsight it was silly. I'd already smudged the autobot image plenty with my betrayal.

"I hope they sent the coordinates down, otherwise I'm going to have to go back up and I'd rather not have to put up with Starscream's ugly mug again."

The 'con smirked, "Lucky for you then. They are right here. Have fun down there, autobot."

"I'm offended that you think I have to be told." I cracked, and strode through the open bridge at a deliberate pace.

I pulled out my scanner and set to my task. From ground level, the speed that the strange signal was moving at was all the more obvious. The agility was impressive too. Looking at the radar feed, another reason I was sent instead of an aerial con was because whatever the thing was, it was far to maneuverable to follow by air. Only Soundwave's vehicle mode had the needed agility but he was more recon than fighter. Not to mention far less expendable than me.

"To small for a vessel, might be a scout drone, but the energon reading is to strong, not to mention erratic." The back log of data showed the thing was consuming more energon than any drone, and then gaining a large amount back despite there not being a clear deposit in the area. "What the hell?" I advanced towards the position of the thing the moment it stopped. After a few moments its energon levels went up. "It's almost like... its feeding on something..."

My mind wandered back, caught in a flashback brought on by the sight of the 'hunting pattern' of the signal. Metal gray cells, the cries of the doomed, the sound of... all kinds of life being consumed in the Quintesson arena. I managed to get out, one of my men giving his life up to break me free of the guards when our time came. The lead scientist in fact, desperate for someone to save his mate and knowing he wasn't the best fighter of the two of us. I killed many guards on my way to save them... on my way to the arena... but the sight... the sheer horror...

Breaking free of the flashes, I drove the trauma from my mind and focused on the task at hand. The strange reading was moving again, away from the point it had stopped at before. It was a good chance to see if it was easting something and maybe what it was that it ate to boost its energon levels. When I got there, I found trace amounts of energon that were so weak that the scanner hadn't picked it up until I was right on top of the... lifting my foot I was disgusted by the gooey sludge that dripped slowly from it.

"Never heard of an energon slime..." but sure enough the faint traces were coming from the gooey. I scanned for its composition, "Mostly proteins, deoxyribonucleic acid... wait... I know enough about science to know what that is." DNA, "This is... _was_ an organic life-form? What in the AllSpark could have..."

_Beep, beep, beep, beep._

The scanner reported the creature, which I assumed it was, coming back my direction. Whatever it was probably having caught my scent or something. I wouldn't be shocked if it turned out I hadn't made sure to stay downwind. Since I was there to find the thing, I braced myself to subdue it for capture. When it came leaping over an nearby embankment though, I quickly discovered there was no way I could have been fully prepared for it. After all, who would expect a hairy, mutant spider the size of a tank? I kicked it with enough force to send any organic flying. After all, organics tended to be light for their size. This one though, was just stopped in place by my strike. No, there was solid _resistance_ to the force in that direction. The thing _weighed_ more than I did!

"Impossible!" I thought out loud and on instinct reacted to the creature's bladed forelegs striking by transforming into vehicle mode, the shift in my mass causing me to sharply drop out of the striking arc and I burned rubber, kicking up some dirt in the thing's face and getting some distance before doing a transforming combat roll into a kneeling position, cutting loose with a barrage from my light blaster array... and missing horribly. I'd forgotten I hadn't readjusted my targeting systems.

"Scrap!" I fixed my optics and at the same time the thing jumped at me. I charged in low and turned my hands into my melee weapons, the ones that weren't part of my original model and the reason I had told Bee I didn't need a energon sword anymore.

The whir of twin energon saws was drowned out by the screech of the blades grinding against the arachnids carapace... and not cutting it. Sparks a little chunks flew, but as I rolled under the beast I was left astounded that I'd only managed to scratch it. I only scratched it... with weapons that could cut through drone plating like it wasn't even there. In my shock I was wide open for an unexpected geyser of webbing that shot from the creatures rump. The beauty of the saws though is the would cut even when I reflexive blocked my face with my hands.

In the chaos of web spraying everywhere on contact with my saws, the sound of cracking and popping, along with a sick mushy sound came to my sensors and when my vision cleared... a humanoid figure was 'hatching' from the form of the spider. I stepped back, "An _organic_ transformer?"

Turning, the feminine figure lunged at me with startling speed and lashed out at me with the cruel front legs of the spider form, which were still when I deflected them, she quickly used them as legs to spring off and kick me with both of her robot legs. If you could even call what it was a robot. I was off-balance, but I wasn't born yesterday, I blasted my light arrays at the face to blind my opponent, then slipped into vehicle mode, the change for which involved falling down anyway. The second my wheels were on the ground, I was trying to run down the abomination. _Trying_ being the active word. The moment of impact backed her up a little, but then she drove the blades on her spider legs into the sides of my car form, prying me forcefully out and into robot mode, I could fight it.

"AHHHHGHHH!" I cried out in pain, the blades impaling my shoulder servos, "What... _are_ you?"

The thing hissed words in a husky, seductive voice, "I'm a disease looking for a cure." it clawed at my chest with its deformed 'leg-arms' slowly and painfully digging towards my very spark, "I wonder how much energon I can get from the spark of a transformer?"

In the pain, my mind flashed again to Quintessa, the sight of my men in the arena pits, thrown in with a small band of other 'criminals'. When I arrived the killing had already begun. I stood posed to jump in and join the fray. Then I saw what the sharkticons could do... no, it wasn't their power that halted me... it was there bestial savagery. They didn't fight, they just ignored the attacks throw at them and ripped at limbs, chewing the still living and fighting... the still screaming. I didn't fight... I didn't try to save them... I ran... I RAN!

"NO!" snapping out of it I turned both my hands into cannons and fired as hard as I could into where her center of gravity had to be, flinging her back and away with the force.

She was too agile though, flipping backwards and firing a shot of webbing from her mouth that I blasted before turning my hands once more into saws and charging in. If I'd been thinking straight I would have had the sense to fight it from a distance, but I was enraged, mostly out myself. I tried punching the thing with my saws but the heavily armored spider legs always in the way. I changed tactics and when she blocked I pushed the arms to the side, locking her into a leaning position, and hopped, bringing down both feet on her leg robot leg. With them came all my weight. The snap was inevitable and sickening.

"AGHAHHHH!"

I lashed out at a chink in her armor shell near the hip, my saw biting in and sending vital fluids flying. With another shriek of pain she countered and I couldn't dodge, a bladed- leg impaling me nearly clean through my stomach. In unison with my pained cry, the other legs came down from above like a pincer, driving in to met the other. If I fought too much, or she pulled the right way, she could easily severe my entire spark chamber. Instead, she resumed attempting to rip it from my chest and lifted me overhead.

"GIVE ME YOUR SPARK!"

"NEVER!" with a last roar of defiance, I drove my saws into the joints of her spider legs. Fluids flew once again as the limbs separated from her I I came falling towards her, blades first, leaving cruel gashes along her torso.

"AIEEEEE!" the mutant freak erupted into its spider form and hobbled away, not lacking speed but having trouble steering without its front legs. If I could move, I would have given chase.

Instead, I logged the meeting as a draw and opened my com-link. Not to the decepticons, I sent a log of my scans to a beacon in the wrecked autobot base and included a description of the creature. I could only hope that Arcee still thought enough of me to go after a signal sent by a traitor. After all, I wasn't an autobot anymore... I hadn't been one in a long time.

I didn't deserve to be one.

Next Chapter: Penance

Preview: Various characters seek redemption for various things, saying anymore than that would reveal too much.

A/N: The new paint job on Hot Rod is another reference to the Shattered Glass concept. That is all. Aside from the shortness of this chapter being a side effect of it originally being intended as only part of a chapter.


	15. Chapter 15: Side by Sidecar

A/N: Yeah, you've probably noticed by now that I really like writing scenes of dialogue between the male and female protagonists, especially when they are romantic interests of each other. Once I start doing them it's hard to stop. I could seriously spend the next three chapters with just the two of them lol. I've done it in other fics actually. Anyway, I changed the plans I had for this chapter, since things needed to be addressed and I still hadn't quite finished the whole thing with Jack and Arcee yet.

Chapter 15: Side by Sidecar

I walked up to Arcee as she sat on the edge of the water and took a place behind her. I tried to wrap my arms around her, but the little wing-like pieces of her robot form got in my way. She turned and frowned at that, "Sorry, Jack." Focusing, she pulled them into her form. Noting the success of the experiment, she took the chance to smooth out all the sharp points on her body, "There, now I won't accidentally stab you anymore."

I smiled and embraced her from behind, resting my chin on her shoulder, "This place is amazing. An entire world for only us that lets us be anywhere and be anything we want. I'm glad I thought of trying to add a setting to our inner world."

Arcee chuckled, "You couldn't have picked a vacation spot with less sand? Don't we get enough of that every day?"

"Hey, I've never been to a beach before. Heck I never saw a lake until I was 16."

"I have you beat." my lover joked, then stopped, frowning a little. It didn't take a telepathic bond to realize what was was suddenly bothering her.

"Does our age difference bother you?"

"I'm young for an autobot. If you do the math and factor in the different lifespans I'm actually not that much older than you. I'm only the equivalent of around 25."

"How old in real years?" I asked, "I don't care, and you don't need to tell me if you don't want to."

"You haven't even lived a tenth as long as I have. Nowhere near it in fact."

"Wow."

"Transformers are essentially immortal. Though after a point bots that managed to live beyond functionality would often decommission themselves."

"They would choose to die?"

"Yeah. It was a lot more common to live that long before the Great War. In fact I knew one of the older bots around that time who would've chosen that if he hadn't given up his life near the start of the war. As a species we don't have a family structure, but he was like a 'grandfather' to a lot of bots, me included."

I squeezed her tightly, "I'm sorry to bring up old pains."

She grabbed my hand and squeezed it with a smile, "I'm long over his death. He died saving me, and it bothered me for a long time, but after a few years of seeing people die alongside me in the war I realized his death was far better than being decommissioned, and that I could carry on in his place."

It was jarring. Not only the culture shock, but the sheer magnitude of the influence the war had on Arcee, no her people as a whole. Saying it bothered me would be understating it, and Arcee picked up on that.

The 'young' bot turned and kissed me softly, "It's fine. You make everything all right... even if it's embarrassing to admit." she kissed me again, "Even before I realized my feelings weren't just platonic, you gave me something to fight for when I'd lost sight of the reason I was fighting. You gave me purpose again."

"Technically, you gave me purpose for the first time. All I had before I met you was trying not to burden my mom too much and getting through every day. Heck, only a handful of people even talked to me. I was just... there." I embraced the love of my life, "Now I'm here."

She smiled, "That was very poetic. I never knew you were such a sweet-talker."

"Neither did I." I laughed.

Arcee pushed me onto my back playfully, a seductive expression on her face, "Well, consider me seduced."

"M-me too." We'd done it at least a dozen times over the past few days, but that expression on her face was practically brand new.

"I want to try something... something for you." Arcee's form started shifting. Her metal skin turning the same color as mine and her features smoothing even more. The helmet-like form of her head turning into a biker helmet as her suddenly very human body was covered by a skin-tight riding suit. She took off the helmet and flipped her hair back and I recognized the form she had taken on: the same as her supermodel-inspired holographic rider Sadie, "Hey, lov-"

I interrupted, placing my finger over her lips. Her expression was stunned as she noticed I wasn't at all pleased. I released her lips to let her ask the question before I answered.

"What's wrong? I thought you'd enjoy this. Now you don' have to make love to such a foreign form."

I looked hard at her, using the mutual control over our inner world to change her back, "I love _you_. Why the hell would I want to have sex with some other form? What's the point unless it's _you_?" I rolled over on top of her, "You underestimate the sheer magnitude of my feelings for you."

She blushed, "God... you make me feel and act so girly sometimes."

"And it's adorable." I teased.

She glared at me and I kissed her. We both let ourselves get carried away by the sensations of our very souls making out and making love. After that, I got the wild idea to do something I'd seen in a movie once and we made love while swimming in the artificial ocean. We were in paradise... and both of us knew it was high time we got back to reality.

Before that, we walked side-by side on the beach for a while, simply enjoying being together and saying nothing until Arcee broke the silence, "You did pick a great spot after all."

"I know."

She stopped and looked at the sunset, sighing, "We should get back."

"I know."

She looked into my eyes and we both smiled for no reason, "You know. There's a thousand reasons this shouldn't work."

"I know."

"And every single one will likely come back and bite us in the rear axle."

"I know."

"It might not work... trying this might destroy our relationship."

"Not trying would tear _us_ apart in more ways than just the one."

She rolled her eyes, "When did you get so good with words?"

I chuckled, "I was working on that one for a bit, I figured you'd say something like that and came prepared."

"I see. So you think you're really smart, huh?"

I grinned, "Ye-"

She suddenly tackled me to the ground mischievously, "I'll show you!"

As the fake sun set, we wrestled and played around in the sand as a farewell to paradise.

About an hour later we walked into base, literally together. It was hard giving up that feeling, even though it's hard to describe it, it was like holding hands, but so much more. My minor bliss was broken into by the realization that my mother was in the base, not looking at all happy. I could understand why. It was bad enough that I'd gotten badly injured when MECH kidnapped Arcee and me again, but I'd been missing for yet another three days, and had been stuck in the middle of a war that destroyed a military installation and was missing for several days after. Plus, her words a few moments later made it clear she knew about the other changes... well, the physical ones at least.

"Jack Darby, you get out of that robot right now, young man."

To avoid weirdness, instead of speaking directly from Arcee's mouth, I had her convey the message, "He's coming out, but you might not want to watch, it's not disgusting or painful-looking, but it takes a bit of getting used to. It's... jarring."

"I can take it."

"We warned you."

Arcee opened her chest, revealing her spark chamber as she knelt down. I came out of her chest as a swarm of metal wires with speed that we'd been working on for the past few hours. Returning to human form still wasn't as fast as a true 'bots transformations between forms, but I had it down to a matter of seconds and the whole thing was more organized, rather than stitching my anatomy together from a pile, I made the point of shaping the pile into a human shape as soon as possible and working from there.

Mom was still grimacing through the whole thing, "That... was jarring."

"Told you." I said as tissue formed over the metal, filling out my form with the organic parts of my true form. "At least the skin coming back first is automatic. I don't even want to imagine what the rest of the squishy parts coming in looks like."

Ratchet stepped over, "Arcee, can I speak to you over in the medlab? It's nothing negative about your health, but it's about your condition."

"Should I be there for this?" I asked, worried despite the reassurance.

The med-bot shook his head, "No. This just concerns Arcee, you can hear about it later."

"Anything that concerns Arcee concerns me. Part of the whole 'part of' thing."

Arcee placed a reassuring... finger on my relatively small shoulder, "Thanks, slick, but talk things over with your mother, she needs you more right now. I'll fill you in later."

I nodded and watched the two 'bots walk off before turning to Mom.

An expression of sadness and genuine concern was on her face, "Jack... what have they done to you?"

"Mom, don't you dare put it that way." I replied firmly. "This was an accident that the 'cons caused. If anything, Arcee suffers for this. She was trying to protect me and now Ratchet thinks she might need me to keep on living. She can't even recharge without my help because of this."

"She seems bigger, stronger."

"Yeah, but she's missing lots of parts because the accident gave them to me. Imagine saving someone's life and your digestive system shutting off. It's the same thing for her. Don't you dare make this her fault."

"I'm sorry." she apologized, then stepped forward, "You can understand why I'm upset though. It was hard enough for me to let you keep hanging around with them after I first found out about this whole mess, but MECH and that spider were still out there. Then they hurt you and... now this."

"This is a good thing." I pleaded. "Except for the needing me to live part."

"How is this good? You're... you're a robot!"

"Well actually a cyborg, but semantics aside I'm not regretting any of the changes." I stepped forward, smiling "I mean, I'm faster, stronger, tougher. Mom, I'm pretty much Superman without the flashy tights." Mom started to say something, but I wasn't finished, "More important is that I can help her now and protect the two of you myself. I never have to watch either of you in danger and sit around helplessly again."

"I don't want you in even more danger."

"But I want this. You don't understand how much I want this. How long I've wanted this!" I looked away, something occurring to me, "Well, you're my mother, so you probably understand. You probably wanted the power to protect me since you found out about the 'cons."

Mom was shocked that I was trying to look at things from her perspective, but smiled, "Jack... you've always been very mature for your age, and Optimus always tells me how reliable you are when he files his reports."

"Optimus reports to you?"

She nodded, "Yes. Every night, even if it's just to say you were safely hanging out at base the whole time. He even talks about current threats so I know he's keeping them away from you as much as possible."

"I didn't know that."

Mom smiled, "Relax, he's not giving too many details. The big guy respects privacy." her smile suddenly shifted to a fond one, "He's a really responsible leader and accidents and kidnappings aside, I trust him, Arcee, and you enough to let you do this. Alright?"

I hugged her carefully, "Thanks, Mom."

"Just don't get killed." she joked.

Arcee's Perspective

A few hours later, Jack and I were back in the desert, this time with an audience, as we tested out something Ratchet had discovered: an optional sidecar for my motorcycle form. It was more than just extra space for passengers or cargo, the small buggy was the final proof that the accident had reformatted me into a prime-class chassis. Like Prime's rarely used trailer, the sidecar was an added feature for the alt-form using the extra matter of the larger robot form and a prime's higher stores of energon for transformation. It was a separate unit with alternate modes of its own, in Optimus' case his unwieldy and impractical trailer could turn into a small outpost that could provide supporting fire, cover, and rudimentary computer functions. It could also turn into a remote drone. However, it was pretty cumbersome so he rarely used it, preferring mobility to raw power.

In my case, we quickly noticed a weak point that such devices don't normal have. When I detached the sidecar and went into my robot form, I was my former size again, lacking most of the prime-enhancements but not all. My upgrade wasn't a flawless one. Worse still...

"I can't get back in." Jack struggled as he tried to merge with my smaller form, "My forms are too big."

"Hm... so you can only merge with her Prime state." Ratchet mused, "An idea occurs to me. Arcee try controlling the sidecar, turn it into the drone form and steer it."

I turned it easily enough the conversion was only a shifting of a few parts and closing the top off, not a form change. Steering it was another matter, "This takes a lot of my attention. I couldn't do this and fight. Why aren't I getting any feedback from the AI?"

Ratchet grinned as his theory was reinforced, "Now, Jack, try merging with the drone."

He did so with a nod and it went smoothly, the sidecar changing slightly to allow him room, the wheels growing slightly and spreading out. The whole things became only slightly more streamlined, like a small car without the passenger bits being obvious. The drone wiggled slightly, "This is strange, being alone in a 'bot."

I walked over, "Check for features, you should be able to trigger a transformation like you practiced merged with me. The system would be basically the same."

The drone wiggled again and the roof opened. There was enough room for a passenger, barely, "There's that." closing the door, he wiggled again and accidentally drove backwards, "Oops. That's a little close to the other system. Gotta get used to that." He wiggled again, "There's something else I can't trigger. I'm probably in the ay of a mode while merged."

"Perhaps the station mode" Ratchet guessed.

"Yeah... Huh? Wait a second." suddenly, the familiar transformation sound filled my senses and the small car transformed into a short blue humanoid figure, a bulkier and androgynous miniature me that was only as tall as my chest. The faceplate was totally featureless, but it turned out to be a screen that sprang to life at Jack's will, showing his face on it. The teen was all smiles, "Oh yeah! Robot mode!" he focused on changing his hands to weapons, and sure enough his hands could become small blasters and he could pop out arm-mounted blades. They were actually identical to my own, but smaller. "Weapons too. Probably not that strong though."

I froze, a strange emotion I didn't think such a thing would invoke. Why was I disappointed of all things?

"Something wrong, Arcee?"

I shook my head, "We shouldn't use that too much it combat. The prime enhancements would probably be a lot more useful than two weaker forms."

"True," Optimus noted, "It is a useful ability for a scout to have however. You can flank even by yourself or access smaller areas without risking young Jack's safety quite as much."

Jack was still looking at me, worried. Our bond, though not as clear as when we were in Headmaster mode, was still empathic. He could tell if I lied or hid something, _"What's really wrong, Arcee?"_

I jumped a little when he spoke into my head without using a com-link and outside of Headmaster form. It was probably the normal drone communication method, "Okay, so we're also telepathic with each other when he's in the drone. That's even better. Communications can't be jammed." I looked away from him, trying not to show my emotions on my face as I spoke privately to Jack, _Sine I have to be honest, I'm disappointed you can fight now."_

_ "Why? Isn't this useful? You don't have to protect me as much."_

_ "I... sort of liked you needing me... a little. Alright a lot."_ Why the heck was I so girly around Jack lately? Love does weird things I guess.

Jack hid his smile, but I could feel it through our bond, _"That's adorable."_

I whipped towards the amused teen and snapped at him, unintentionally out loud and with my embarrassment on full display, "Would you stop teasing me? Seriously!"

Jack laughed, and took a step forward as if to tackle me playfully as we had done several times in our inner world. He stopped though, realizing we weren't in that world, and everyone was looking at us with expressions that varied for amusement to confusion, to shock. "Um. Sorry. Makes more sense if you heard the whole conversation. We'll avoid going on tangents in..." There were suddenly quite a few crossed arms and raised eyebrows as he tried avoiding any questions, "What?"

Miko's face suddenly exploded to an expression of slightly mischievous elation, "You two are dating!"

As Jack did a poor job of lying I was about to do one as well before a transmission to my beacon drew my attention. It was an old band. Triple-encrypted with a familiar cipher. I knew who it was, and I knew the code word to unlock the message. Only Hot Rod would know that cipher and that code. The message was scans with a simple warning in a wounded voice, "New type of transformer, not a 'con, almost as strong as a prime."

The images... were of a giant organic spider with strange glands resembling transformer parts, and of an organic, deformed 'robot' mode with a familiar face. A voice recording was included, it was a familiar voice, "GIVE ME YOUR SPARK!"

I froze, terrified. Jack had glanced over to get my help, but saw the scans, as did everyone else. I could scarcely get the words out, as if admitting it was her would make the nightmare real. Quickly that fear was joined by hatred and anger, "Airachnid!"

Next Chapter: The Hunt

A/N: No, Jack isn't an autobot now. This new separate 'bot form is just a completion of the Headmaster concept, based most heavily on the exo-suits humans used in later G1 Transformers. In fact, the exosuit of more than one human has been used as a headmaster unit. It being a sidecar is (like explained in the chapter) builds off the idea that Arcee has been "Primed". Jack will later take on a codename to pose as an autobot though, going by "Sidearm" a play on sidecar and the fact he can turn into a weapon. It also sounds cool, lol.


End file.
